Strangers we've Met
by TeggieLady
Summary: With the reluctant help of a few Doctors,..3rd, 5th, 9th.. Martha, Jack, and the 10th Doctor cross the void to find Rose, problem is she is found in an unlikely place. But after all they’ve been though what do they really know about each other? Rose.10
1. Chapter 1

Strangers we've already met

A meeting with The Master

All in all The Master was pleased. He had destroyed half of Japan, tortured Harkness and had a sighting of Martha Jones in Europe, it wasn't even lunch time. And he found what he had been looking for ever since he heard her name.

He whistled I song he had heard on the constant radio networks of his favourite music which ran twenty four hours a day incase he was bored and needed something soothing, humans maybe mindless sheep but at least the music wasn't that bad. Shame it would be closed down next week and all its members killed as it was reported that they had complained about playing the same songs, it wasn't The Masters fault he had selective tastes. The Doctor was brought out from what the former Harold Saxon liked to call 'The Doctors' doggie pen' and sat in the T.V. room. (A white cinema style room with a dark red sofa where The Master liked to watch his programs.) Without a word The Master began his new torture, and handed the Doctor a photo of a blonde female looking no older than nineteen, grinning in the past the camera, as though she wasn't aware it was even there.

"You see some time ago I heard you and your friend having a little chat about a woman, and I just couldn't help but find out who she was, maybe I had thought to myself," The Master pondered. "I could have brought her here and we could have caught up on old times." He finished lightly. His eyes trained on the old man stood before him rigid as if about to strike, but the younger looking man knew this would never happen. Not now and not after this.

"Only problem is she isn't here is she?" The Master mocked in a voice that even the youngest child would find offensive. "My sources however managed to retrieve this from Torchwood one, you may remember it's the one at Canary Wharf. And they found this," he held up a tape.

"Everything you ever needed to know about Rose Tyler, and now I know that, I know how to destroy you." Turning on his heal the world leader of Earth put the tape into the machine and pressed play.

(Word from TeggieLady)

_Last night (24 Aug 2007) was my first attempt at fanfiction writing even though I've been reading them for years. With grammar and spelling mistakes I have no doubt made but missed I didn't have much hope. Then I got your email!!! Thanks a lot I really appreciate it and hope you will carry on reading my work you have now inspired in to write in the future, a good day has just got better and I feel great. Thanks again and hope this note made you smile because your email defiantly made me! (And thank you to the people who've added me!)_


	2. Chapter 2

Always about

Martha Jones had not seen the Doctor in nearly six months, why he should be asking for her at the hospital was beyond her, but there he was. And he needed her help.

The Doctor looked awful. Martha knew that from her days of travelling with him he needed a few hours of sleep a month. If that was still true then he hadn't slept in years. His brown pinstriped suit looked as if it was a second skin covered in more oil then the TARDIS engine contained. His hair in more directions then usual and Martha was sure she could smell him before she saw him.

When he saw her he smiled, although in that one gesture he seemed to look every one of his nine hundred and a bit years. He needed Martha Jones help and she would give it to him.

As Martha walked into the TARDIS she felt excitement, he needed her help, he needed her. She could help him and he would she her as her, not forever in the overbearing shadow of the woman who haunted Martha dreams even though they had never met. Martha Jones knew Rose was blonde, and had lost count of the times she had imagined her hair to be like a model from a hair dye ad, always flicking it this way and that in the sun safe in the knowledge that she was 'worth it' or whatever the latest catchphrase maybe. As skinny as Kate Moss and so intelligent that she made Einstein look like an idiot explaining the two times tables. The prettiest woman anybody ever saw with a Snow White cross with that woman from the sound of music personality. That was Rose, but she wasn't here so Martha would take her place that and four other men.

One Martha recognised, "Jack! What's going?" she asked walking towards the Cardiff living Captain.

"Well hello there miss-almost-a-Doctor-Jones how good to see you, nothing much the Doctors just gone mad" answered Jack in a strangely serious but still flirtiest way.

"No, I haven't its completely possible." Snapped back the Doctor.

"Not saying it's not all I'm saying is there has gotta be a different way about it." Yelled Jack back walking over to the Doctor now stood at the edge of the console, the two friends glaring at each other almost sizing each other up.

"There isn't Jack really I've looked, spent the last forty three years looking, and I am telling you this is it, if you don't want to be here, that is fine I will take you back. No worries, but this will happen." The Doctor spoke in such a deadly voice the other men cessed their own argument about….fashion? And looked around suddenly instrested.

"That a point why are we here?" Asked the blonde wearing striped trousers and a cricket jumper.

"Well it will be the Time Lords won't it? Always out to make my lives miserable." Boasted the older grey haired man with a magician's cape, suddenly the argument about fashion didn't seem as ridicules.

The man with the buzz cut hair and tough leather jacket said nothing choosing instead to stand with his arms crossed in defensive manner and glared harshly.

"Well Martha, you see I've already told you about regeneration, this is it, well sort of ermmmm….?" Said the Doctor scratching the back of his neck.

"What pretty boy is trying to say," added the leather jacket man with a harsh Northern accent. "Is that we are all the same man just different versions in different lives."

"Right..yes!" agreed the Doctor smiling then he realized it had meant to be an insult, frowned. "Oi! At least my ears aren't as big as yours dumbo!"

"Oh please don't start this again, your both worse then children." Groaned the cricket fan running his hand through his hair in an obvious stress pose.

"He started it!" Exclaimed the Doctor.

"Well at least I'm not trying to destroy the universe! This isn't the Time Lords this is him, he brought us all here." Yelled the other man looking ready to hit the Doctor. The old man and the blonde looked at the Doctor in shock.

"I have my reasons!" the Doctor defended.

"Well then what are they?" the buzz cut forty something year old man yelled back, as though nothing could justify what he did.

"Give me chance!" yelled the Doctor one last time, the turned to Martha and grinned and acted his usual happy self. "I have thirteen lives, once I die I change my body I am number ten that man there is three," he pointed to the grey haired man. "That is five" he pointed to the blonde man, "and that pleasant fellow with a rather large watermelon up his backside is number nine, the one before me." Then turning to the 'number nine' he added "though how she put up with you I have no idea."

"I have crossed my own timeline because I need three other Time Lords for a very important purpose." The Tenth Doctor finally explained. "We are going to go to a parallel universe."

"You're insane, absolutely insane" Doctor nine whispered.

"If you want to get to another universe so bad then why don't you just ask the Time Lord council?" asked the cricket playing number five.

"oh ermm,… they've kicked me out… again, don't like me any more, well never really did said I shouldn't interfere, natural order of things you know? Won't help me." Ten explained rubbing his neck, soon it would leave a mark.

"You complete moron, I think you've stolen the crown from Mickey the Idiot, you cannot cross the void just so you can what? Pick up a different flavour jam?! You risk killing the TARDIS yourself and trapping us all there, not to mention Reapers, both universes could collapse and the universe destroyed both universes destroyed!! What in the name of Rassilon could be worth that?!" screamed nine uncrossing his arms bright red in the face and storming towards the 'moron' Doctor looking him straight in the eye.

"Rose" he answered quietly.

It was always about Rose.


	3. Chapter 3

Silence speaks volumes

The echoed silence that rang around the TARDIS seemed to sound more alien then the dematerialization sound ever could.

Nine's expression immediately changed, from one of fierce anger to one of desperation and worry.

"Rose? What about her? What's happened? Is she alright?" Each question tumbling over the last never leaving time for answers, the Ninth Doctor uncrossed his arms but still glared at Ten for answers.

"Rose is trapped in a parallel universe and I need your help to rescue her." Ten explained again, the others pleased the Doctors seemed to have something in common even if it did seem so…..tragic?

"How?" asked Nine quickly.

"If Three or Five can give me a lift in their TARDIS so I'm travelling on their timeline. You, Jack and Martha can help to make an almost flawless travel through a much more...well protected tougher void and into the same parallel universe where Rose Tyler currently lives, with the help of the council of Gallifrey!!" The Tenth Doctor gabbled with his far more of his usual energy and enthusiasm, his Time Lord brain suddenly refuelled talking about a subject he had been obsessed with ever since he watched her disappear at Torchwood.

"No, I meant how did she end up there in the first place?" replied number Nine, his glare getting more serious, with a sick feeling in his stomach that it was all somehow his fault, or at least number Tens' but they were really the same man so it didn't really matter.

"Ah…can't tell you that, I mean I really shouldn't tell you that, it would be very bad if I told you that and it would have no chance of ending well if you……..knew that." Ten rambled mysteriously, while scratching the back of his neck in an uncomfortable gesture, staring at the grating on the TARDIS floor. "It doesn't really matter anyway."

"Rose Tyler is stuck in a Parallel Universe and your telling me how she got there in the first place doesn't matter?!!" the tips of Nines' ears had gone dark shade of red and his harsh accent made his voice seem even louder.

"Now I am really interested how did Rose put up with you? I mean you're not only a miserable git, you're a loud one too!" yelled Ten a look of shock and disbelief on his face.

Sensing a fight was going to break out for the third time since the two Doctors had met the third Doctor thought it was best to ask a question to distract them.

"Who is Rose exactly?" He asked, his future regenerations turned around to look at him in surprise, Nine and Ten seemed to have forgot Ten his presence and Five looked happy to have something else to do rather than marvel at the amount of swear words and petty insults his future selves could hurl at each other.

"The most wonderful, fantastic, compassionate and gorgeous woman in existence, and really very hot too." Spoke Jack for the first time since the 'discussion' between Nine and Ten, more than I hint of pride in his voice.

"Your girlfriend? Wife?" Asked number Five politely.

"Wow There! I wish! I may not be able to die but I would still like to use both my legs…..and not be thrown out of the TARDIS while on top of Krakatau." Jack said hurriedly, his hands raised in a reflex 'I haven't done anything wrong' position in the direction of both Nine and Ten.

Nine looked at his future self and said something what made number Three say "Is that really necessary!"

Followed by a very serious statement from the buzz cut Doctor.

"You're an idiot."

"Nothing happened!!" cried number Ten.

"Yes, but you wanted it too." Said Nine snidely.

"So did you," replied Ten with his eyebrows raised.

"I really don't understand. What body did you meet this woman?" asked number Five, as he found it difficult to believe these two agreed in anything.

"Me, I did I met her first, then I obviously died and this Prat took over and somehow got her stuck in another universe." Said Nine smiling cruelly as if he had proved she liked him best in a single sentence. Ten just glared.

"But you both had romantic relations with this woman." Asked Three pleased they were finally close to getting answers.

"No, because she's human, neither of us has." Nine glanced suspiciously at Ten who contained to glare. "She's just a very good friend, and she's not 'this woman' she Rose." He defended.

"What's being human got to do with anything?" Asked Martha speaking for the first time, since the 'Rose' discussion had started, All the Doctors stared at her.

"Humans age, you live for what in the 21st century? Eighty years max and that's if dieses or accidents or even murder doesn't kill you first. Eighty is a good long life for a human, for a Time Lord its not even a body not a single body, I'm nearly over a thousand if you'd watch every human grow old and die you travel with, you'd go mad. Live hundreds, thousands of years after they die. Watch them get weaker every day while you stay the same, if you get shot you die. If I do this time tomorrow I'll be as right as rain looking like him." Nine spoke softly nodding his head over at Ten.

"I'm not asking to be with everyone until they die, just Rose." Muttered Ten quietly causing everyone to look at him.

Silence.

"Right then lets get her back before her mum kills us then." Cried Nine suddenly in a strange decisive manner, rubbing his hands together grinning.

"Actually…Jackie's with Rose."

They would never get there at this rate.

_Thank you to every one who's reviewed I hope to have the jelly babies people have promised me. Your reviews have been a real confidence booster and encouraged me to write more. (Sorry if number Nine scares you, I just needed a contrast between him and Ten lol! Also has anyone else noticed that Torchwood is an anagram of doctor who? No, really try it!!) _


	4. Chapter 4

Family ties 

At first Martha was able to compare the Doctors relationship with Rose like the one with her Mum and Dad. One day Rose had simply just left, met someone else and claimed that they were 'having problems for a while', though in her mum and dads' case Martha had never really believed that as they were never fighting around her only after they got a divorce, constantly.

Rose had one day got bored and just left to 'be with her family' leaving a heartbroken innocent Doctor in her wake. Then she had met Jack and heard them talking. The Doctor would never forget about Rose and this proved it, this and over four hours yelling at his previous selves. Jack had informed her that what they were doing was being 'civil' and what they were doing before she got here was considered to be in the words of number Nine 'worthy of stupid primitive apes'.

Just when it looked like Nine was one side Ten had said that her mum and best friend were also in the universe with her, now his previous self was back to calling him insane only slightly less politely than before.

"She's safe, she's ok and she's with her family you want to rip her away, and bring her to a world where she will be alone, when she chooses to leave you, to leave us?" Nine yelled exasperated.

The other two Doctors looked at each other, they were back to yelling, they couldn't really get to be like this in their future could they? All because of a human woman?

"Look all I want to do is give her a choice ok, that's all," Ten retorted, trying desperately to keep calm he knew if he couldn't convince number Nine who had meet her than how could he convince some one who hadn't?

"Oh yeah, you or her family tough choice," Screamed Nine in a nasty sarcastic voice. "The Dad she never had, the woman who raised her and her boyfriend who won't end up getting her killed, you've got a chance there."

All in all number Ten had been very calm but Nine really was annoying and what did he know? He'd only travelled with her for six months, number Ten had two and a half years with her, and he wanted more.

"She's twenty one, every one leaves home sooner or later, this Pete isn't really her and Dad and she hasn't been out with Mickey after you took her away from her family and nearly got he killed the first time round!" For one crazy moment number Ten actually thought he'd won.

"She's only twenty one! But she's still a child!" cried number Three, shocked that this really had come over the future him….s?

"She was nineteen when we met, and she wanted to be taken to the future." Continued Ten, no one else understood he would have to make them. "Do you remember what she said when we told her what was outside? 'You think your so impressive' who else has said that? Who else has gone in the TARDIS, walked out, walked around the outside and then walked back in and asked if she was alien? You wanted her to understand to stay with you, so you took her to the year five billion and let her watch the sun expand and the Earth explode. And you never told her it would all be rebuilt later. You want her to stay just as much as I do. Just because she's Rose"

Silence.

"After all that's happened I want her to have a choice to know that at least I tried." Ten finished quietly.

"Explain how she came to be there in the first place and why you can't get her back yourself, and then we may consider it." Asked Five sick of the fighting and content on talking charge.

"Daleks."

Nine gazed at Ten in horror.

"You can't tell them about the future, especially that!" He cried angrier.

"There was a ship, a void ship and the Daleks hid inside, when they broke through the void they made a gap in between universes making a path for Cybermen from the parallel universe to follow, I closed the gap with all the Void dusted Daleks and Cybermen inside and Rose got caught on the other side,. I need to go back in my one timeline because now it is far too weak to go through, without ripping both universes apart." Explained Ten.

"But with the Cybermen and Daleks in the void you think she worth risking its destruction?" Asked number Three in horror at what he must face in the future and what the older him was suggesting.

"Which is why I need you, both of you, all of you, if I cross your timeline then if it all goes wrong, even though I'm ninety nine point nine nine nine percent sure it won't and we damage the void well nothing nasty will come out." In usual voice full of confidence, though inside he was ready to break.

"What if she's married, got kids then what?" Asked number Nine rudely, but reasonably.

"Then she get's a proper good bye, an all the best for the future and a me? No, I was just in the neighbourhood, I met Sarah Jane a while a go while I was travelling with Rose, turns out she waited for me to come back, no way am I going to put Rose though that." Ten knew he was lying when he said 'just in the neighbourhood' Rose would see right through him, she always did.

"Sarah Jane? Not Sarah Jane Smith I've just met her" Cried a shocked Three. "no she'd never do that."

"She did and I don't want to do that to Rose."

"Guess, we better get to this Miss Tyler then." Said number Five finally.

Number Nine sighed knowing he was being out voted when number Three started to nod.

Someone was going to get their heart broken.

_God that was long! Next chap why need Martha? Find out soon! Sorry for the delay, I have made a file for all my reviews, would you like to add to it? Yes you would go on you know you do! Please I'm doing my ECDL and it's the highlight of my day. Rose next chapt !_


	5. Chapter 5

Require a member of Staff

"Wait a second. How are you going to track Rose, down in a parallel universe, nonetheless? We have no idea how many there are, or which one she's in!" Jack questioned.

"Easy! Martha Jones, would you like to help me recover Rose Tyler from the other side of Hell?" Asked number Ten, addressing Martha for the first time since she had entered the TARDIS.

"What could I do?" she asked uncertainly, realising that he only needed her here from a higher propose and not to quote sonnets and enounce his undying love. Not that he ever came close to doing such, but a girl can dream, can't she?

"You, Martha Jones, are the same blood type as Rose. Isn't it brilliant? When you got knocked out a while back and it got a bit scary, 'cause you wouldn't wake up, I took the liberty of drawing some blood. And I noticed it was the same as hers!" Ten was now frantically running around the TARDIS, desperate to show the others that he had indeed thought of how to get to Rose and it wasn't a flight of fancy, or a simple whim. "You were wearing a TARDIS key for a year at least, so was Rose, but obviously not the same one, because hers is in the other universe with her. With the connection of blood type and weak, harmless time energy now in your bloodstream, it should be similar enough to Rose's and I can lock down on it and just pick her out, because, logically, no one in other universes has this particular combination. Although… Mickey is there also. No, doesn't matter, I'm sure it's going to work."

A mad grin overtook his features, happiness lighting up his eyes. "Easy peasy lemon squezze!! What do you say?!"

_Silence. _

_Rose would understand. _

It was the only thought, unfairly, that crossed the Doctor's mind.

"This energy is 'harmless' though, yeah?" asked Martha, trying to buy herself time to think. If she did this, it really did mean letting him go. But had he ever really been hers?

Number Ten nodded and Martha suddenly realised everyone was looking at her, curiosity and expectations mixed on their faces.

"Alright," she said finally, taking a deep breath. "But only if I can go with you."

_Know your enemy and all that. _

"It's a little bit dangerous, we really don't need..." the Doctor broke off, seeing how determined Martha was to tag along. "Yeah, sure, the more the merrier. Well, maybe not merrier, but I still don't think it will hurt. Well, it wouldn't be safe, really. I mean danger is my middle name…owww, The Danger Doctor…oww I like that. Anyway, I'm sure everything will be alright… Probably" the grin graced his lips once more.

"Let's go then, number Five's TARDIS awaits! Alonz-y!!..." he made towards the door.

"Errrmm… you should take a shower and change your clothes first". Martha added, glancing again at his unhealthy looking appearance.

The Tenth Doctor, on his part, looked rather surprised. He glanced around at the others to ask them what she meant, only to notice they had the same uncomfortable expressions on their faces. He sniffed at his jacket and made a face. It smelled.

Bad.

"Ah, yes, right…"

They really were doomed.

* * *

It was an hour and a half later, when the Fifth Doctor's TARDIS sprang to life. After an argument over how long a Time Lord should take in the shower, and then what he should wear, they were on their way. Martha had thrown his pinstriped dirty suit in the wash, which meant his electric blue was the only one clean. The Tenth Doctor had then argued with the other Doctors for another half an hour the origin of that "monstrosity". This made Ten feel even more insecure as Rose had never seen him in the blue and he wasn't really sure she'd like it.

'_What if she doesn't recognise me?'_

His inner turmoil prevented him from noticing or commenting about the other Doctor's rather dubious choice in wardrobe.

After wondering if he should change for another half hour, Nine had grabbed his arm and pulled himself out of the TARDIS.

"Fantastic, in my next body, I become a woman". He muttered under his breath.

Once in the earlier Doctors time stream, getting to the Void was easy. But crossing it would prove to be the harder part.

Three took a needle and drew some of Martha's blood, then put it in a slot within the TARDIS' console, strangely all white, for it to be scanned.

Beeping, green and yellow flashing lights, were soon followed by sirens, which gave way to angry mauve lights. Louder and faster beeping followed. As the four Doctors positioned themselves in each corner of the console, they gave each other meaningful looks.

"I hope to Rassilon she's worth it." Five muttered.

"Oh she is" replied Ten.

Then the real chaos began.

* * *

Something was pulling them in.

Faster and faster the TARDIS had hurtled through the Void. Then it had pulled sharply and locked onto something else. Screaming in protest, and pulling away in vain, the TARDIS crashed into a very unfamiliar world.

"I thought you said it would work!!" yelled Martha just as the sirens stopped.

"Oh it has, it has. We're here, we're here!!" the Tenth Doctor cried, an insane grin on his face.

"But the TARDIS….that can't be right" Martha looked around, the bright sterile walls of the unfamiliar TARDIS were bursting with light. Somewhere far along the corridor a huge church bell was ringing.

_The cloister bell…_

"It's like giving a man going to China, a map of New York. The TARDIS can't travel through the Time vortex here, because she simply doesn't know how." Explained Number Five.

"Or giving a car that runs on petrol, diesel. If she stays here too long the damage will increase and the TARDIS will not make it out of the void on the way back." Yelled number Nine quickly, in the same hurried sense as his future regeneration. "But, the bloody _fantastic_ thing is he knew it would happen. He knew it would affect the TARDIS as badly as this, because he's done it before." Now giving the Time Lord in question a deathly glare.

"Yes, well, if I said it was going to be as bad as this you would never have agreed." Muttered Ten sheepishly, avoiding any and all eye contact.

"The TARDIS engines are down; whatever it is, something is holding her here. You are a fool, really, very…..badly dressed fool, who will get us all killed and end up destroying the Time line, the void and crash both universe into each other." Yelled number Three, still confused as to why anyone would want to cause this much destruction.

"Yeah, probably… Come on then." Ten clapped his hands together happily. "Parallel Earth, Pete's world, London, twenty first Century." He was the first one to step outside.

"This isn't London."

It wasn't even Earth.

* * *

Martha Jones had done what every companion of the Doctor's had a tendency to do: she wondered off.

The Doctors were now outside the TARDIS arguing again, and this time Jack was trying to defend number Ten which only made things worse. To travel to another universe was one thing, but to do so, and end up in the wrong place, was "sheer incompetence."

They were in a building with a long thin corridor with white walls. Strange alien signs, that Martha couldn't understand, littered the walls, underneath there was small marks like someone had ripped something off the wall. The place had an eerie, quite white noise ringing all around.

Martha knew she should turn back. She didn't know the way, though. It was down a stair case, she was sure, but the long winding corridor all seemed the same. Every step or so finding closed steel doors, with key card slots. More alien writing ran across these but this time very so often it was in English, all viewing the words "require a member of staff".

A scraping, painful noise echoed further head, as Martha saw another metal door lowering down. Looking behind her, another identical one was doing the same. A recorded female voice rang over a loud speaker from over head. First in a loud grunting sound, Martha assumed was an alien language, then in English.

"Warning, warning. For your own safety please return to your rooms, there is contamination on board, so all oxygen from this corridor will be removed, I repeat all oxygen will be removed. Thank you for travelling with _Holiday spaceways_, Have a nice day."

Martha ran.

Ducking under the lowering doors as she went.

Five, six doors went by until the last one, so close to floor, Martha had to roll under it. The door hit the red carpet with a thud. Standing up Martha saw, to her horror, that the door beyond it had already closed. There was no way out.

Suddenly feeing light headed and recognizing the feeling, she realised the oxygen was already being sucked out from the room. Struggling to breathe, she felt desperation built within her until she collapsed.

This was it. She was going to die. All because she didn't want to hear the Doctor argue with himself, however that worked.

Martha was almost unconscious, when a pair of strong arms pulled her to safety, through the only open door in the cut off corridor, into one of the many rooms Martha had just ran past.

Martha lay on the safe side of the steel door, for what seemed like hours, desperately trying to catch her breath. Then she did the only thing she could think of. She introduced herself.

"I'm Martha Jones"

The woman smiled, breathing rapidly, although not as heavily as Martha.

"Nice to meet you Martha Jones, I'm Rose Tyler."

**Ok, tell me what you think please cos really it does give me a buzz. **

**Useless bit of Doctor who info time now:**

**I learnt this week that after the doctor who film in the 1960's didn't do so well, they decided to make it into a T.V. series, but they sent the script, or something like that in the post. To stop it getting into the wrong hands (dun dun dun!!!) they sent it under the anagram:**

**TORCHWOOD **

**Thank you to Beth and Jed for this exciting piece of completely pointless trivia.**

**And if anyone has noticed a rather dramatic decrease of the spelling and grammar errors and an all around different and better lay out to the story, look no further than **

**BloodyMary**

**Thank you once again.**


	6. Chapter 6

Rose Tyler, the Time Traveller

By TeggieLady

For Jack, hearing the Doctors argue over anything and everything they could think of was not a very interesting way to pass the time. Of course, the mere fact that they were all four different versions of the same man was intriguing (at first). However, the novelty had long since worn off. Now he felt the large growing illness of desperation and disappointment. He knew, nearly as well as the Doctor, that after seeing the effects of void travel on the TARDIS without the 'appropriate assistance from the high council' the other Doctors were not likely to try it again anytime soon.

The trip had gone wrong and now they were no where near Rose and even further away from finding her.

Jack tried to protect the Tenth Doctor, claming that they could simply 'try again', only to be put down by the Third Doctor, who had argued that, without a doubt, 'certain death to the TARDIS would follow'. Sighing, Jack turned to go back into the TARDIS only to find the door tightly shut. He pulled out his ancient key; the one Rose had once insisted the Doctor give him, just days before Satellite five. That had been the first time, in a long time, Jack had had a family; a home. Or at least one he could remember, since the Time Agency had taken away two years of his memories.

The key wouldn't work.

He called a Doctor over to open it but it turned out to be stuck. After Jack was told by four different versions of the same man that the door would not open, (each having tried to open it themselves), they realised they might have a problem

"Hang on, where's Martha?" asked number Ten, looking around, just now noticing her absence.

A lounge with dark blue designs painted on the walls, clearly from obvious alien origin and a huge window stretching over the side of one of these walls had told him they weren't in London. That and the magnificent view of the Higher Larws Effect easily viewed from near the planet of Ballase III only proved this further, as it wasn't due to explode until the 30th century, long after Rose. They weren't in the right time or even on the right planet…

In fact, they weren't on a planet at all.

They were on a spaceship. An enormous spaceship it seemed and by the sound of the engines the Doctors guessed it was simply drifting through space. On an emergency stand-by, energy conserving mode probably, as they didn't seem to be moving very fast. If at all.

There was a large bar on the far side of the room. The TARDIS had landed in the middle of the area and it was only after Jack had glanced behind her that he had seen an array of bottles, from hyper vodkas, gin and talons (a very popular drink consisting of a small glass of gin and a rather large animal claw). And other brightly coloured liquids Jack knew all too well.

He walked around the bar to investigate the vast quantities of alcohol further, only to find a large and strange shape hidden behind the bar. It was covered in an old dusk sheet and although it was about the size of a three seated sofa, it wouldn't have been spotted from the other side of the bar, easily obscured by the counter.

Jack was just about to look under the dirty sheet, his curiosity surpassing any caution, when an alarm sounded.

Really, all these alarms were starting to get on his nerves.

* * *

The woman, who had introduced herself as Rose, sprang off the wall she had been leaning against. The second the alarm had sounded, she had made a noise that sounded like a cross between a war cry and a sneeze.

She picked up a thick red clipboard from the floor and ran towards the far end of the steel grated corridor, where she had pulled Martha to safety moments before. It was only now that Martha noticed the room's less than friendly nature, a contrast to the one she had been in before. With pipes lining the wall and huge metal bars running over the ceiling, Martha had a pretty good idea their whereabouts inside the '_Holiday Spaceways'_. The _Staff Only_ sign proved this.

Without another word Rose ran down the corridor, the shrill sounding alarm and mauve flashing lights transforming the once silent place and making her run faster. Martha followed in her wake, silently. Down a small flight of stairs, Martha quickly recognised as the same ones she had climbed up and past a door labelled _'lounge', _they ran.

Towards a lift, apparently.

The Fifth Doctor walked out the door and straight into Martha as she ran past.

"Whoa, Martha, what's going on?" he asked, holding tight to her wrists to stop her from going straight past him.

Martha looked past him, only to see a number light up on the top of the lift, signalling its descent. Number three then changed to a number two then a number one and stopped.

Rose was now on the first floor.

* * *

Rose Tyler glanced around the navigation room and swore once again, in ancient Serjon, a planet she had spent a great deal of time on after her engine had blown up and managed to terrify the prehistoric natives. Really, Rose would be happy if she never saw an ancient tribal dinner dance again, both honouring and preparing the main course, as long as she lived. Especially, when she was the main course.

Rushing over to the controls she tried to activate the SOS signal. Pressing the alien spaceship equivalent to _shift –alt- and -delete_, Rose was left with a blue computer screen. (What Mickey had always called "The Blue Screen of Death")

Typing in the _S O S_ code she had long ago memorised from the traditionally unhelpful huge instructions booklet, she set to work, pressing buttons expertly on the console as fast as she could before….

_BANG!_

Too late.

First engine out.

She really should have tripled checked that the overdraft hinge was in place first.

_BANG!_

Second engine out.

She was almost done. All she had to do then would be to send the signal to the Space Accident and Emergency Programming Network (SAEPN).

_BANG!_

Third engine out.

Murphy wasn't playing nice today.

Controls shut off and the noise stopped. There was silence once again. And Rose had once again failed. The engines had blown up and gone into stasis before she could finish sending the distress signal.

_Again._

Rose put her forehead against the surprisingly cool widow looking out into the bright green Higher Larws Effect constellations. This been the only view from the window for the past three weeks. Rose was beginning to think that the beautiful scene was just a sign of failure. Hers.

Suddenly, she heard breathing behind her. Shutting her eyes, prepared to either tell the nosy git to get a hobby or to tell them to announce on the ships speaker phone that she had once again failed to send for help. Rose hadn't really decided which one yet.

Turning around, a sigh escaping her lips, her eyes landed on the very last thing she had ever expected to see, but the first thing she always hoped for, before sleep every night.

_The Doctor. _

Both of him.

* * *

Number Ten didn't know what to do. This was worse. Worse then going a 'little bit wrong'. Because now it had gone completely wrong.

The woman with the stained oily, once white, tank top and the natural blonde hair couldn't possible be Rose. Not her, not with Torchwood or other government agency issued knee high black boots. With black heavy looking trousers tooked in.

Too uniformed and formal. Messy dark blonde hair tied back and a smear of engine oil running from her nose to just past her right ear.

He was positively, absolutely, completely sure it wasn't her.

That was until she said his name…

He walked towards her and took her in his arms. He had had many dreams and visions of them running towards each other in a crowed street in the pouring rain. Or at least somewhere where there was pouring rain. He knew she liked that sorta of thing (she had made him watch a film, where the couple snogged each other in the rain at the end_. Alabama_ something). He hadn't really thought about snogging her now, though. Well, not while the rest of himself was watching.

She wrapped her arms round his neck and pulled herself to him, like they had done so many times in the past. Rose was the first to pull away, looking confused and a little bit weary. Staring straight into his eyes as though she was suddenly afraid he was going to disappear on her… Like he was some trick of the light or other strange occurrence.

He said the first thing that came to his mind, which seemed to be always a step or two behind his mouth.

"Hello." He breathed, and then wondered how he could have said something so dense. So mundane. Of all the things to say, and he says that?

"Hello" Rose answered back, this time smiling back at him, her tongue struck lightly between her teeth. This, like all the previous times, made his smile widen.

Yes, she was Rose.

His Rose.

* * *

As they broke part, the Doctor noticed they had something of an audience.

All the other Doctors, Martha and Jack included, were waiting in silence. This reminded him of the nerves of meeting her again, he had consequently forgotten in the mist of confusion. Well at least he knew he had the right universe.

Staring at the party, Rose resorted to the only 'weapon' she carried in times of such crises. She laughed. Looking back the others would later see it was from a mixture of shock, relief and happiness.

But right now, Rose looked quite mad, with tears running down her face and gasping for breath.

She finally managed to breath out a single word.

"How?"

"Crossed my own timeline." The Doctor explained casually, no big deal really. He was a Time Lord, after all, and it was for Rose. Anything for her.

"I can see that." Rose answered, smiling shyly at Number Nine. He grinned back a wide, maniac grin that warmed her heart.

"Is it safe?" Of course Rose would ask that. Always the right questions until she got the right answers.

"No, probably not." He answered, just as casually as before. Distracted by the thought that maybe Nine and Rose were smiling at each other a little too much.

"In fact, if we so much as give each other a hand shake, we could destroy the universe, both universes as a matter of fact." His attention seeking plan wasn't working. He scratched the back of his neck and ruffled his hair. He decided to revert back to old tactics he believed should work. "In a large explosion that would cause great catastrophe and lots of bad stuff like that, which is just as well, really as we would never give each other a handshake. Never"

"Enough with that tension, I'd rather see them snog." Flirted Jack, as he stepped closer to Rose, coming from behind the Ninth Doctor and bringing her attention on him.

She grinned again.

"Jack…" She whispered before giving him a large hug. That really did last far too long in _both _Doctors opinions.

As they pulled away the Tenth decided to introduce himself to Rose, however that worked.

"Rose, I didn't just cross my timeline once. Because I change my body, if I do cross my own timeline it would be a little bit more stable if someone else did. You see, I'm number Ten. That's number Three."

He pointed to the grey haired Doctor who took her hand and shook it politely, curiosity shinning in his eyes. "Pleasure to meet you, my dear." He said pompously.

The Tenth Doctor didn't care or didn't notice, as he soon continued.

"That's Number Five." He pointed to the blonde Doctor, who also took her hand, but limited himself to simply saying _hello_.

"And that, as you well know, is number Nine." Ten finished.

Much to Martha and the previous Doctors surprise, number Nine pulled Rose into a bone crushing hug. Her head rested on his leather shoulder.

A bitter angry man quickly transformed before their very eyes.

"Hello" he said.

"Hello…" Rose Tyler laughed.

"And of course, this is Martha." Said Ten finally successful in breaking the moment, jealousy, from himself, overtaking him. "Not a version of me, I can't turn into a woman, thank god. I mean the whole thing is strange and dangerous enough without becoming a woman to boot. Not that I'm thinking about changing, I mean I quite like this body. Really it's not too bad. Where, as a woman, it would be just strange."

Rose looked past number Nine and smiled at Martha. This time not a real smile only out of politeness. Martha was sure, for a moment, that sadness had crossed her eyes, but too soon it was gone. And in its place a genuine look of interest overtook her features..

"Martha Jones, right?" Rose asked, walking a few steps towards her. Martha looked at the infamous woman.

"How did you know that?" asked Three, looking at the exchange between the two women with interest. Martha began to panic, she could just imagine it, Rose telling everyone she had been there for five minutes and needed someone to save her.

"Oh me and Martha go way back." Answered Rose smoothly, giving nothing away.

"Really?" The Tenth asked eyebrows rose. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I mean, there's gotta be two years between you. You grew up around the same time in the same area, both from London, both live quite near to each other. I wouldn't be surprised if you even went to the same school." He grinned happily.

Yeah, they really did have a lot in common.

* * *

They were eating some sort of soup with twenty three other people in an extended kitchen. There were small tables all around, but they had the biggest one, half the way out into the corridor. Rose and Jack sat next to each other and opposite them were Nine and Ten. On the other side was Three, opposite him was Five with Martha squashed in.

"So, over two years ago the fifth engine blew up. I've already looked into that, there is more chance of Father Christmas turning evil and telling Rudolf to go to Hell then that ever working again. Trust me." Rose explained proficiently to the Doctors while flicking through the red clip board, which was filled with written notes and codes for the ship. "Anyway, most of the guests escaped to the nearest safety ship after that and got the heck out. Especially as it was so soon after _Megaway_."

"Hang on, guests?" The Fifth Doctor questioned.

"This ship is a holiday cruise ship. The third of its kind." She looked over at Martha, "Think Titanic, you know. We've got a big huge ship, with not enough life boats. There's two decks for the people with a whole lot of money. And it was put together by a bloke who spent his time smoking something that would make him see pink elephants."

"Right, doomed from the start, good to know. What's '_Megaway'_?" asked Martha, pleased they were getting somewhere in figuring out this situation.

"The Megaway massacre. The first ever space cruise ship crashed into a smaller export station and ended up killing all of its three thousand passengers." Explained Jack. "But that doesn't happen until the end of the 31st century; I thought you said we were in the end of the 30th?"

"We are, but we get our massacres earlier then you." Rose said this like she was reporting the daily weather.

The Ninth Doctor wondered how many other massacres Rose had seen.

"So what are you doing on a late 30th Century holiday space ship?" Asked number Ten.

"I got a ride a while back. It turns out I'm Rose Tyler, the Time Traveller." Said the strange woman with a smile.

The Tenth Doctor laughed. "Better than Rose Tyler the file finder or Rose Tyler the…Pencil pusher? Rose Tyler the pen, pencil and paper pusher." The couple burst into childish laughter. A joke the others understood, but knew it wouldn't be funny to them as it seems more of a secret thing.

"So, anyway, the fifth engine's down and everyone tried to escape, but the people on the 3rd and 4th floor can't, because by the time most of them got up there, there weren't any ships left. The staff living on the 5th floor has already left on their private ones, so all that's left is mixture of people, who either didn't buy their way onto a ship or threatened to kill someone to get on." Rose finished.

"So you and these twenty odd people, have been on this ship trying to fix the Fifth engine for the past two years?" Asked number Nine.

"No, I have my own ship and was pulled in by something. I don't know what it was; I just thought it was something to do with the cruise ship. I've only been here about five weeks. I can't go and get help, because my engines died as well." Rose said quietly.

"The ship has five engines. There is no chance of fixing the fifth one, but that was the stabilizer. The fourth is back up and is always running, because it's past the stasis control. It's the life support. But without the first and second, the third has very little chance of moving and we need it to send a distress signal for someone to know we're still here."

"You mean no ones coming?" Asked Number Five.

"No, after _Megaway,_ no one wants to know that kind of bad publicity. I guess they are trying to keep us quiet, so they can keep their rep and not go bankrupt." She explained scornfully. "As the three engines are shut off, the ship thinks it's parked, so it doesn't set up the controls… Thus our inability to send a message."

"Who's been trying to fix the engines?" Jumped in number Three.

"Me. I'm a mechanic. Only problem is, I also do the navigation because nobody else will. So as soon as all engines are up, I gotta get from the 6th floor to the 1st, before they blow up."

_Rose Tyler, the mechanic._

Jack and Rose's Doctor couldn't believe it.

"You?" asked Nine, with a smile.

"Yes, me." Rose glared. "I'm not doing too bad I don't think."

"Why were the walls lowering?" asked Martha.

"Shut off areas." Rose said. "There are three hundred and thirty rooms, but only twenty three people. The trip was never meant to last longer than three weeks. It's lasted more than two years. The food is getting scarce and soon so will the oxygen. We only need the navigation room, the engine room and this corridor. We channel that oxygen to those areas and we don't waste oxygen on areas we can't take up. That's mostly what I've been working on over the past couple of weeks. Now, we don't have impending death following closely at our heals."

"Fancy helping me fix the engines?" Rose flirted with the Tenth Doctor. He grinned happily, filling his chest up with pride.

"Well, since you asked so nicely..."

They were both smiled.

Things may not be so bad after all. Well they couldn't get any worse.

Could they?

_

* * *

_

_Once again long chapter (longest yet) I know you don't know anything about Rose's past just yet or how she can across a time machine, but you will. This chapt is more about setting the scene. If you're not too sure on something send me a review and tell me about it. And I will take it on board and explain in more detail in later chapters._

_By the way 'Alabama_ something' was Sweet Home Alabama I just thought it would be funny imagining him watching it.

_ (Not even half way though yet Oooooowwwww its exciting!!!! Excuse me humph yes right…)_


	7. Chapter 7

* * *

By TeggieLady

The engines were humming loudly, though not as musically, nor beautifully as the Time Lord's ship. Four of the engines had been kept running with a few simple minor adjustments. But, as Rose had explained, the Fifth engine was 'out for the count'.

The Tenth and Ninth Doctors were, much to Rose's amusement, trying to fix the machines with the same techniques and tools she had been using for over five weeks. After four hours of working and arguing they were making progress. With the engines of course, they were still fighting like children. Jack had long since gotten bored, nothing new there, and went away to 'gaze at the beautiful scenery' (even though he doubted anyone believed him.) The Third Doctor was making notes of the controls in the Navigation room, "to get away from the foolishness that seems to be manifesting between his future selves". And Martha and Five had gone 'to have a look around', not interested in the engines, nor on the show.

"Rose, why is there chewing gum next to the centre unit circuit?" asked number Nine in a very patronising manner, while analysing the gum with his sonic screwdriver. A look of utter discuss on his face.

"That area has got a hot wire connection, I needed something to block it or the main frame of the power supply would short out. The gum stops the electric passing through to the other side, and thus prevents it from overloading." She explained, clearing away the polystyrene cups from the coffee machine upstairs.

"What about the electrics putty?" Asked Ten, his eyebrows raised, desperate to catch her on this charade. He wanted to make her admit it hadn't been her, who had redone the wiring and the safety processes for the entire ship. Clearly, someone else had to have done it and this was all a joke. Rose could never have done anything as complex as this.

At least, he didn't think so…

"There isn't any. All the tools are from my ship and the only mechanic on board ran to the safety hatch, when the ship stopped. Had to make do with or do without the proper equipment… That was the nearest thing to it." Rose shrugged, amused herself at the Doctor's disbelief.

"But what about safety control, measurers, protocols…" Insisted a shocked number Nine.

"There isn't any, this ship is 'unsinkable', so why plan for the worse?" Rose scoffed, her face showing clearly what she thought of this situation.

"Titanic all over again, isn't it? Why don't humans ever learn?" muttered number Ten, slightly shaking his head.

"Because this was made in Australia in the 30th century. They've probably never heard of it or have simply forgotten. And its not just humans who are arrogant, you know?" she retorted, not so subtly.

* * *

So, Martha and Five had had a hidden agenda.

It didn't make them bad people.

Just curious…

Something wasn't right about Rose. Martha guessed the other Doctors hadn't noticed it yet, because they were constantly name calling each other or they had noticed and refrained from commenting, for some reason or another.

Either way, Martha and Five had not failed to notice how cagey and secretive Rose was being. So did Jack, of course, but he had refused to help under the grounds that he didn't want both Doctors to kill him repeatedly. Because they would.

Deciding to circumvent the situation, they went in search of the people, who had spent the last five and a half weeks with Rose... The other members of the ship. They weren't blatant, just dropping questions here and there, trying to gauge their reaction.

All in all, the pair received mixed opinions. It took them only a short time to realise that there seemed to be two groups on this ship. The humans and the aliens. Apparently, those two didn't mix.

The humans had jobs of everything from lawyers to window cleaners to nutrient experts from the Mars University. Not many of the short group of eleven seemed to like Rose. In fact, they all seemed to pretty much hate her.

"We, humans, built this ship, so we should get the coffee machine. Simple." one rather fat father of four had cried, in response to their inquiry about how Rose runs the ship. Shortly after, Martha had learnt that, not only was she the engineer, but the captain as well.

"I told that to Tyler and she just laughed! Said we had to split it fair. Bollocks!! They're aliens… They don't deserve to be treated fairly!" Around him, others cheered, clearly agreeing to his opinion.

"They say that when the oxygen gets rationed, she's gonna become one of them. They need less than we do, you see… Weirdoes." A woman in her late teens claimed conspiratorially.

"Course, I asked her straight out, I did. I said 'are you one of them?' And do you know what she said to me? Why I'd never heard the like." An old woman informed the gathering crowd. "She said 'they're different… not good different, not bad different… just different' and than she said we had to be more understanding. More understanding, heh? I am very understanding. They're all out to kill us, they are. If it won't for our brave boys at Torchwood, we wouldn't even have a planet no more. It would have been invaded by that scum!" indignation laced her every word.

The aliens weren't that much better. A mixture of blue, green and red skins. From aliens with only one eye to aliens with more eyes than you could count, all talking in their own languages. As Martha walked past a group of three aliens, all with glowing white mouth pieces, she was strongly reminded of a television character called Doctor Zoidberg. Martha caught bits of their conversation and didn't like what she heard. When the Doctor and Martha were threatened for the third time, they decided it'd be best if they left the alien's 'territory'.

"Well, that was certainly interesting." Whispered Martha, as they sat back at a table in the staff kitchen area. She was tired.

"Yes, a perfect example of alien and vs. human… prejudice and propaganda at its height brilliancy!" Fifth spoke sarcastically. "Real history right here."

"But, no one had anything to nice to say? Everyone was ready to rip each others throats out… If they hate Rose so much, than why is she in charge?" She was confused by that more than anything else.

"Well, the aliens feel threatened by Rose and automatically assume that she will grant privileges to humans, simply because they're her species. But the humans aren't getting any bonuses and think it's because Rose is a traitor. Simple, really." He ran his hand over his face in stress. Not so simple.

"But, surely there's some way to keep them both happy, isn't there?"

"No, based on this timeline and the history of this period, it's clear humans have seen too many invasions, not assume that any alien wants to invade, take their natural resources and make them all slaves. So, they react by shooting anything that moves. Best defence is a good offence and all that rubbish… The aliens come in peace, but are quickly killed by terrified humans. They, then think humans are all out to kill them and so the vicious circle continues."

"But, what about on this ship? Can't Rose stop it?"

"Of course not. She can't control other's opinions. She must have a hard time being unbiased as it is. Those ideas must have been passed on by generations, habit is a hard thing to break. And let's not forget they've been trapped here for two years now. Tempers are flying high."

Martha thought about every alien experience she had had till now. From meeting the Judoon to the Master and the year of Hell that never was. It did really start to add up.

Suddenly, yelling came from the corridors.

The Third Doctor and Martha quickly stepped out and saw clear sign of mass panic; it really did seem to be a habit on this ship.

* * *

Rose heard the cries and wasted no time before running to see what problem was. She should have guessed. A fight had broken out between six of the strongest alien men and seven or eight equally strong humans.

Something about 'human spies' and 'insulting questions.'

This was not going to end well.

The yelling got louder and Rose stood to watch. Nothing she could do, really.

A green scaly alien could be heard shouting. "I don't know why we have to take orders from her anyway, they were right. She's one of them!"

Now, it was time to intervene.

"Because I'm going to fix the engines". Everyone turned all eyes to her, some more than others.

"Look, here's the deal… Stop fighting. Stop trying to kill each other. Share. Share space and food and yeah, eventually, oxygen. This was supposed to be a two-week trip. You've been here for more than two years. It will run out eventually." The group glared but nodded in agreement.

"I'm saying this, because if you don't and I get distracted by you lot and your stupid playground rules, then I will baraquade myself in the lounge, in my very own spaceship, drink hypervodka and eat roasted peanuts. I'll just wait until the oxygen has run out or you've killed each other… all bets are off as to what will happen first. Then, when there's finally some silence, I'll finish fixing it. What do you think of that? Personally, I would prefer it to watching you kill each other. Or you can stop fighting, give us a bit of peace and quite and wait for the engines to be fixed. It's your choice, really." She sounded nonchalant, even if she was anything but.

As soon as she had finished her speech, cries of 'its not fair' and 'why should we' echoed around the confined space. Rose took a deep breath, turned and walked towards the lounge. Ignoring Number Ten's (who had followed her to the corridor) look of disappointment as she walked past.

"Rose, hang on, think about this" He tried to reason as he followed closely behind. "You cant just leave them…"

"Why not?" Rose interrupted. "I told them if they couldn't handle acting like civilised …well you know… Don't say anything if you can't say anything nice. And they can't even do that. I'm sick of it. Five weeks and a half I've been here listening to this, I'm so sick of it."

She had gotten to the lounge determinedly before he could even reply.

"Rose, just stop. You cant-" Rose pushed open the door, ignoring him "Do this"

Rose stood there in shock.

The TARDIS stood there, right in front of Rose, in all her beautiful glory.

* * *

Rose Tyler gazed at the machine as though it was the answer to all her problems. Jack and Three, who had heard the noise from the Navigation room, were starting to get more than a little bit worried.

"Rose?" Nine whispered, as he joined them. The Void travelling gang had all arrived.

This seemed to snap Rose out of it suddenly.

"How did you get here? The whole ship is locked out, nothing goes in and nothing goes out. No signals no, distress beacons, nothing. How did you get here?" She turned, her brow creased in confusion.

"You and Martha have the same blood type. We looked into it on the TARDIS, then crossed the Void using the Fifth's Doctor TARDIS. We needed Three to do the lock down, me and Nine to steer. And Five typed in the access codes, of course." Ten almost repeated what Nine had explained earlier. "You know, a TARDIS was always meant to be driven by Four Time Lords. But I've managed all these years by myself. That's quite an achievement, that is." His head bounced up and down, pride coming off of him in waves.

"Rose, what's wrong?" Nine could sense his future self gearing up for a long winded 'I'm so great speech' and Rose was still staring at the TARDIS in wonder and confusion.

"And that's it? As easy as that?" Rose turned around and looked at the other's faces, suddenly feeling as though she was on a stage, spotlights beaming down on her.

"No, we ran into some turbulence on the way." explained Three patronalizingly. "Got pulled into this exact spot, the tractor was only meant to work in a ten mile radius. But it brought us right to you. Now, she won't move." He glared her way, almost accusingly.

"No, it brought you right here. Right to this spot." Rose walked around the bar and pushed out the strange, large shape Jack had been examining earlier.

There was a knock on the door and a man's voice could be heard clearly and rather loudly. "Tyler! Can we speak to you for a second?"

"In about five minutes!" Rose yelled back. She was far too excited to talk to the playground gang now.

Rose pulled the dirty sheet off the shape.

"Just like it did me." She revealed a Reagull 40. A 54th century time and space machine, for the far wealthier traveller. (The human 21st equivalent to a Mercedes, only with fully powered jet engines, light speed auto navigation and a free hover in time instruction booklet.)

"Wow! Now that is nice." Jack was clearly impressed. He couldn't help but smile as he remembered a time when had stolen one of these and then sold it back to the guy for more than double what he had originally paid for it. Of course, this was before he had meet The Doctor and Rose.

Jack walked over the machine to examine it further.

"I was pulled in, while watching the Higher Larws Effect. Suddenly, my engine died and I had to park it here. Only problem now is that it won't move or even start. Something's keeping it here. And if I finally do get it to start-" the Tenth Doctor cut Rose off.

"Let me guess, the engine suddenly goes?" Rose nodded. "The TARDIS got beaten up pretty badly, I though it was just the effects of the Void….But-"

Rose laughed. "You know what's directly under this spot though, don't you?"

The Doctors Shook their collective heads.

"Engine number Five."

With that, all Four Doctor took out their screwdrivers, bent down and scanned the floor.

Rose watched for a second in amusement, a wishful look in her eyes.

"Hey Rose?" Jack whispered.

Rose turned to him, only to find he had opened her Time machine to get a better look. Jack now held a Liesonce in his hands, which he had found inside the ship.

"When did you change your name to Mr Alan Switchson?"

There was a flash of golden light.

When it faded, it become clear that all time travellers had disappeared.

_

* * *

_

_hello_

_Hey hope that cleared up a bit of the 'whys' and made things more clear._

_Let me know what you think of the storyline, positive buzz words are great and really do wonders for my ego, but I do like a good ramble._

_Tell me when I do. _

_Thanks for the reviews, and I hope you keep reading. _

_TeggieLady_


	8. Chapter 8

Living in a dead man's body

by TeggieLady

Rose woke up with a groan. She lifted her head from the hard white granite floor and looked around. She was in a room with dark cherry wood lining the walls and a high glass sunroof ceiling. For the first time in more than a month she saw natural sunlight, and it blinded her.

She glanced behind her.

_"Jack?"_ he lay with his back to her, unmoving.

Leaning over, she rolled him carefully onto his back. Covering all of the left side of his face was red, live blood, not to mention his head, which looked seriously bruised.

"JACK!!" Yelled Rose frantically, trying to catch a glimpse of anyone else. There was no one, though. She was completely alone.

Putting two fingers on the space where his neck met his jaw, she prayed for a pulse.

_There wasn't one…_

Jack was dead, gone. She had just gotten him back and he was gone, all gone, just-

Jack woke up suddenly, making Rose jerk her hand away.

Deep breaths began to fill his empty lungs, colouring returning to his pale face.

Jack was alive! He _wasn't _dead…

It was all Rose's fault.

* * *

Nine woke up slowly in a peaceful, overly serene place. A garden, full of beautiful fresh flowers in full summer's bloom surrounded him. Two dragonflies circled a pond, constantly being filled by a trickling stream that echoed near. The only other sound that could be heard was the singing of a couple of birds. The smell of recently cut grass wafted graced his nostrils and the suns were shinning brightly, not a cloud in the sky.

He was in Heaven.

Until Number Ten sat up and swore loudly.

"Where are we?" He asked rubbing his head, as if in pain. Nine suspected, though, that he did it, because he wasn't quite sure it was messy enough.

"I don't know," He answered, getting to his feet. Further up the garden, there was a hill. Thinking he would be able to get a better look, Nine started to walk towards it.

"Well then, how did we get here?" Ten asked, following him, while trying to clean an imaginary grass stain off the back of his trousers.

Nine turned around to yell at his future self and caught him rubbing his butt. He sighed. He had travelled with women for over eight hundred years and his TARDIS was a female. He was bound to get a little feminine eventually.

He rolled his eyes.

Back at the Academy, all those years ago, a Professor of his had once made the suggestion that your future bodies could be influenced by the company you kept. Of course, he had thought the theory ridiculous at the time. And, since it could never really be tested, travelling with humans being illegal and all that rubbish, the theory could never be truly proven. Anyway, how could it be possible to absorb one or two of your companion's characteristics? That was just downright impossible.

But it did make some sense.

Rose had once pointed out to him that he wore his leather jacket like an amour. It was like he stood there, with his arms crossed… him against the Universe. But after the Time War was it not only natural to be a little bit self-protective? Rose and Ten seemed to be stuck in a cycle of flirting and long conversations about nothing in particular that suggested a similarity between them, he had not shared with her. That and the new accent he seemed picked up indicated more than a little in common with Rose. It would also serve to explain the more physically stereotypical attractive body. A run of the mill '_pretty boy'_.

Anything for her.

Not for the first time since all this started, Nine wondered how he will meet his demise…

"That must have been a teleporter or at least a transformer hotspot located in that area designed to go off when examined." Nine explained, looking at Ten in a possible new light. He had drastically changed and Rose had chosen to stay by his side. That must have meant something.

"Yeah, I know that but…. What was Rose doing there? Years after her time, in the middle of space?" Ten murmured, with gaze in the distance wile his brain worked overtime.

"How should I know?" Nine snapped. He had no patience for his new self.

The birds continued to sing as the Doctors walked up the path to the house.

* * *

"You see, my dear, it is really a matter of will…" Explained Three.

"_'Will_'? Don't be ridiculous! What matters here is if you can make it work. If you share the same hopes and ambitions." Countered Five.

"Yes, but if you put the work in, of course you will be unstoppable. And you only put the work in if you want it badly enough."

"Really? And I thought Cricket was just about hitting the ball and running." Asked Martha smiling.

Martha, Three and Five walked out of the kitchen towards the corridor, having a peaceful argument about cricket on the way.

* * *

"How old are you?" Rose asked as Jack sat up.

"_How old am I_? That is bit of a rude question, missy. How old do you want me to be?" leered Jack. She was having none of it, though.

"Just answer it," Rose snapped.

"About one hundred and eighty years, give or take a little." He replied tonelessly.

Rose swore under her breath, sadness overtaking her soulful eyes "I'm sorry."

"It ok," Jack laughed bitterly, shrugging his shoulders.

"No, it's not, Jack. I swear I didn't know, not until I got to this Universe." Rose stood up then helped him do the same.

"_He did_."

"What?" Her head snapped around to face him.

"The Doctor, he knew. Knew I was alive and he knew I couldn't die and he left me." The brave captain sounded awfully resigned.

"No! No! He didn't" She frantically shook her head, unable to believe it.

"Yes, he did. Said I was wrong somehow. _Freak of nature_… and he's right. He left me, gut feeling or something. Hand me down Time Lord Trait. I'm wrong and he knew it. So he just left me there. Not even a goodbye, no expatiation." Jack looked to the floor, almost ashamed.

Rose just shook her head, murmuring quietly "no… he wouldn't do that." Although her words tried to be convincing, she didn't seem too sure.

"He did. I had to run to a dematerializing TARDIS and cling on, as she travelled, trying to chuck me off all the way to the end of the universe. Guess it's kinda my fault we met the Master." Jack looked at her and smiled sadly, gone was the happy playboy, in his place stood a broken man.

"Who's the Master?" Asked Rose.

"_The other Time Lord_."

* * *

"Can I ask you something?"

"Fire away." Replied Number Ten cheerfully.

"Don't tempt me," Nine murmured. "Why me? I mean you must have known I would have been a bit iffy with the travelling to another Universe thing."

"Yes, of course I did. But, well, I thought you, of all incarnations, would be on my side. For going with me and getting Rose instead of against."

"Kinda of backfired."

"Yes, I noticed." Ten said dryly. "Three travels with Sarah Jane. I was thinking he would understand what it's like when someone just walks in and asks all the right questions. How proud you are of them." He reminisced sadly.

Nine nodded in agreement, "and Five?"

"Tegan. Someone, who's loud, a right pain in the… and jeopardy friendly. But you wouldn't change them for the world."

"Ah, yes, right…" Nine nodded in understanding.

Silence…

"And the real reason…"

"One would think I've gone mad, Two would try and play her '_Baa back sheep'_, and I really want to avoid the recorded question for as long as possible. She'd laugh herself silly at Fours scarf, _or like it, try it on and then flirt_ with him the whole time. Six would blind her with his coat, Seven would say something weird. And Eight would suggest reading her _poetry_." He frowned, shaking his head in disapproval.

"Ah, all right then."

* * *

Martha and the two Doctors heard voices coming from a room nearby about half an hour after setting off.

Rose and Jack were talking quietly inside; Rose running her hands from the top of her forehead to where her hair was tied, a look of panic on her face.

"Oh don't worry my dear, we Doctors are usually fine." Said number Three pompously walking into the room. Jack turned around and nodded in their direction. Rose just shook her head, her eyes still on the floor.

"Where are the others? Really Miss Tyler, there is no need to worry. Have you seen them?" asked Five kindly.

"Don't worry, we're here, safe and sound." Ten walks in followed by Nine. " 'Safe and sound', oh that is strange, what is 'sound', anyway how can anything be-"

"_Did you know_?" Rose cut him off almost immediately. A snap decision before she lost her nerve, or her anger.

"Rose, no…" Jack whispered, shaking his head. He held her arms, trying to pull her away.

"Know what?" Answered Ten innocently, him and Nine walked into the room and shut the double doors.

"When we left Satellite Five, when we left Jack….did you know he was still alive?" Rose walked nearer to Ten, as Nine walked discreetly past her. This wasn't his argument.

_"Yes."_ Said Ten coldly.

"But you left him. On some Space ship two hundred thousand years in the future from where we were. No way back, surrounded by dead bodies and Dalek dust?"

"Yes."

"Because, in some weird Time Lord way, he's wrong? I made him wrong, because of the Time Vortex." Voice hoarse, she tried not crying.

"Yes, but-"

"You left him, no goodbye, no way back, no check up to see how he was doing." Her voice choked in her throat, in an effort to get the words out.

"Yes, but really Rose we need to-"

"_Are you going to leave me too_?"

The double doors crashed open and three armed guards appeared, dressed all in black leather and heavily armed with machine guns and motor bike helmets.

They began shooting.

Martha, Jack and the Doctors dived to the floor, but Rose was too slow.

She had been nearer the door and seemed to be the gunman's target. Bullets crashed along the walls, making deep wounds in the wood, smashing a small coffee table and vase of pink flowers to the floor on the far side of the room. Blood splattered all around.

_Rose fell to the floor_.

The tallest man gave a wild hand gestured and the other stopped shooting. Dividing into two separate groups, they left. Even before they had vanished from sight, though, Ten rose to his feet and ran to Rose.

There was so much blood…

"Rose! Rose, no no no no no…" he muttered frantically. He grabbed her hand and stroked her red stained hair gently as if he would hurt her even more. Bullets covered her body from head to toe and for every hole they had made on her delicate skin, the Doctor felt on his own hearts.

"Why?" he choked, a tear escaping the corner of his eye. He felt broken.

"_Because she meant something to you_". A cold voice from above him snapped him out of his pain momentarily.

He looked up.

There, in a black suit and red tie, stood the Master. His eyes, always cold, matched the mad smirk on his lips. Looking down at the other Time Lord in disgust, he smiled, happy.

More tears fell from the Doctor's eyes, following the path of that single one before them. They ran upon his freckled cheeks and trickled down his chin. His chest heaved. And an incontrollable rage started building up in his body.

He was on the brick of loosing all control…

It was then that Rose woke up, gasping.

"Not again!"

* * *

Ok, so that's chappy 8 hope you liked it and it answered a few questions. Not too many as i would like to think the Doctor and Rose are finding more about each other as the story goes.

If you didn't understand a bit tell about it and i'll explain it again later in the story, if you don't like a bit tell me or i'll just keep doing it to really get on your nerves. This little bit is going somewhere by the way and that is (get ready for a shock)...REVIEW !!!! (please)


	9. Chapter 9

Storm troopers and Science Labs

by TeggieLady

_Disclaimer: I do not own the TV Show Doctor Who, all I own is a mug and a calendar. (Mind you I've got some converse, a leather jacket and a really long scarf…)_

* * *

The Doctor and an Assistant travel through time and space.

Sometimes it's just the Doctor and his Assistant. Sometimes it's the Doctor and the Assistant's Assistant. And on those rare occasions, many many years ago, it was the Doctor and the Assistant's Assistant's Assistant.

The Master was sure these 'Assistants' had had names; he can even remember a few of those. But what would be the point of recalling them all, when the _ultimate Assistant_ stands before him.

The Master knew the other Time Lord called them 'friends' or 'companions'. Nonsense, really. So the Master wasn't sure what to refer to them as. That is, until he had been introduced to an 'Assistant' at a UNIT base. Then, he had learned how to refer them as. These stupid group, mostly composed of humans, were simply people the Doctor would give his life for. More importantly, they were rather easy to hold hostage.

Only when necessary, of course…

They are called 'Assistants', because they are really useful in 'assisting' him in hurting the Doctor.

And, as Rose Tyler stands, her clothes covered in bullet-shaped holes and vivid red blood from no longer existing wounds, The Master knows.

He will use Rose Tyler to assist him in hurting the Doctor, permanently.

* * *

"So where are we then?" Number Five questioned as he looked around the room.

The Master and the armed guards had brought the Doctors, Jack and Martha to another dark room, only this seemed to be clearer on its purpose. It was a test lab, full of bright bottles and dangerous sharp looking equipment. In the middle of the room stood a machine. It reminded Martha of one of those old hair dryers at the hair dresses. Or the machine the Doctor had used to alter his DNA with. Only this one looked even more complex and alien. With a metal hat and a steel box with wires coming out of both sides, an a old dentist chair. Jack was eyeing it from the corner of the room they were being held at with a mixture of terror and hatred. A small space cleared especially for them, just to hold them hostage. After taking them into the room the Master had then left, with Rose. Now he had come back without her.

"How are you even alive, that's not possible… I would have sensed you before." Roared number Nine. "You are not alive!"

"How did you get into this Universe, the Gallifreyian Council would have never granted you access." Cried Number Three.

"Where is Rose, what the Hell have you done to her!" screamed number Ten. "Where is she?!"

All the Doctors were yelling different things, each trying to rise above the others voice. The Master just smiled from the opposite side of the room, cold and uncaring. Eventually the voices stopped.

"Where is she?" number Ten repeated what he had previously said, only now he growled.

"Right here." Answered Rose walking into the room casually.

Rose had taken a shower. She was now clean and wearing different clothes. A dark purple tight-fitted shirt with jeans and she was even wearing makeup. The sudden appearance of this more familiar Rose made both Nine and Ten hurt. What was going on?

Her hair was drastically shorter then it had been the last time Ten had seen her, while he was in his TARDIS and she a universe away. Her dark blonde hair ended about an inch after her ear in choppy uneven parts and her bright red high heeled shoes clicked along the floor.

"You shot me." She said to the Master simply.

"Yes, am I forgiven?" The Master spoke, full of charm.

"You're not sorry." Rose stated.

The Master almost laughed, he killed so many people by now he was never sorry. "No".

"Well go on then, at least your honest. I've been shot too many times to hold a grudge." Shrugged the blonde Londoner.

"How are you alive?" asked number Nine, the question directed at the Master. Everyone else in shock as Rose wondered over to the Master and sat on the worktop next to him. The Master stood by her side and his face split into a wide grin.

"How did I survive the Time War that killed everyone of our kind? Easy… I hid. Ran and hid, hid as a human. Changed my biology to live like one of them." The Master pushed off the table and walked around the machine. He watched it carefully, his dark brown eyes full of excitement. His hand rose and then hovered as if afraid to touch it incase he would somehow harm it.

"How I came to be in this Universe, however, is a completely different matter," he turned sharply on his heels to grin at the Doctor.

"And it is quite simple really, even young Martha here should be able to understand." Martha glared at him, the man she had watched die and felt glad… the Doctor may have been crying over his dead body, but she was glad he was dead.

"I'm not real." Although, it was obvious he was still completely insane.

* * *

"Piss off!" Yelled Nine.

"Oh now that's not very nice," the Master turned to Rose, whispering in her ear conspiratorially. "He doesn't like me very much."

"Well, you did murder over twenty billion people in ten seconds flat" Said Jack

"A new record!" cried the Master, his arms spread wide, a child like grin on his face.

"Mum must be so proud," uttered Martha bitterly.

"I doubt it." Said number Five. "Mum was human."

Silence.

"So was yours." The Master said almost conversationally, if it weren't the venom in his voice, that is.

"You're brothers?" asked Rose, looking vaguely interested.

"Yep, twins… though I was always better at well……..everything." He leered at Rose. She just tilted her head and smiled sweetly. "You didn't know?"

"Like he'd tell me anything like that. The conversation would start with 'what are your hopes for the future?' and end with the 'Russian spacecraft of 2012 crash landing into an unsuspecting pigeon'" Rose said this almost like reading the news. No emotion, just do what you need to do.

"Half human, on my mothers side. The biggest, and most horrifying, secret in Time Lord history. Dad watched her grow old and die, while he stayed the same." More silence. "Guess the Doctor, who is lord of all that is right and good in the universe is trying not to let history repeat its self. Or at least he was, now….." the Master laughed, hard and cruel. While he turned to face Rose. "Now I guess he'll be the one to grow old and die. And you will have to watch."

"Rose..." Murmured Ten, he looked at her in shock, suddenly realising what she would have to see and what she could have already seen in the time since he saw her last.

"Something happened when I was about two hundred. I first died way before that but at two centuries I realised, how alone you really am, it really did take that long. I really am just a 'stupid Ape', after all." she laughed lightly and swung herself down from the table and walked casually towards his enemy. "You were right, why fall in love at all. You're just gonna have to watch them die in the end and how could they really ever understand what it's like? So much death and pain, it might as well be on repeat."

_Never-ending._

"I never said that." Ten shook his head. Is this what she was like now? Cold and broken? What was it that had broken her?

"No, you just said 'human's age, you withier and you die…' Guess that means I'm not human then, 'cause I don't age and I don't die. I'm a freak." She looked him straight in the eye, until she laughed and broke his gaze, turning to the Master instead. "Well, I'm not really that, 'cos I do die I just don't stay dead. I mean Jack ages, he will eventually die, I won't….ever." She turned to the Doctor again, tears in her eyes. "The perfect companion. Someone to out live you."

"Anyway, originally yes." He clapped his hands together happily breaking the moment and making them jump.

"I was from the other universe. But after I had taken control of the entire planet, I got bored. I needed a way to hurt you. Hurt you more than I had ever done. Martha would have been useless, I already had Jack. And the TARDIS… what else was there? Then I remembered you talking, me and the Freak heard you over the intercom… About Jack being a fixed point in Time and how he had been ready to face three Daleks, already dead, really. And then she came. And the way you said her name, the way you both did, it told me all I needed to know. Trapped in a parallel universe, you said. A Goddess, who managed to absorb all the power of the Time Vortex. A being so powerful that she was able to create life and take it away… The final act of the Time war. Ironic really, you ended it with the most brutal massacre in…well ever, now that killed more than twenty billion, you gotta admit that. Twenty billion per planet really, and how many planets burned with Gallifrey at the heart?" the Master turned to Rose.

"And you killed all those Daleks with a wave of your hand." He laughed.

"Do you know what they call you? Both of you? The Legends woven through history? The Oncoming storm and the Bad Wolf. The Lonely God and the Valiant Child. The Destroyer of Worlds and the Abomination. You, Rose Tyler, are what the Daleks think is so bad, it must be a myth. You're the Devil to the Daleks" he glowed with glee.

"Why not? I killed their God, didn't I? But I'd rather be hated and feared by Daleks, then every man, woman and child on Earth". Rose looked at the Master, a neutral expression on her face. No clue to what she was thinking, or planning. The Master just grinned.

"I'm not real, I'm a copy." The Master waved his hand and then put it on Roses' shoulder, it went straight through no imprint or sign that it was ever there. "Think about it. How many 18th century Mansions have you seen with their own Storm troopers and Science labs? None of this is real, and neither am I, that's why he didn't sense me. Everything in this world bends to my will. The guards however are very real, to prove it that's why I shot you. Bad Wolf may mask you from the real world but in mine you are very much full of the Time Vortex, still running through your head."

Turning back to the Doctors, "I was projected from the other universe by the real version of myself to find Rose. Once I capture everything. Every thought, every feeling, every idea. Put it on a tape then send it back. He's got you captured, tortured. Somehow, you've escaped, but it doesn't matter. Once I've got Rose, I'll kill you. Oldest first, I think just to make you suffer. It's the other universe timeline at risk… I don't really care. The other me gets the tape and plays it to you again, and again, and again. Until you die. I disappear when he's got what he wants. I can't get her to the other universe, but I don't need to. I'll put it all be on camera then send it back."

"The Imaginetric!" Yelled Jack.

"Finally, the Captain speaks,"

"What's a..." asked Martha.

"Imaginetric, it's like a video recorder, but you plug it into someone's head. It plays out your memories, right in front of you for everyone to see, while you're unconscious. Everything from your earliest memory to your latest. You can see, hear and feel what it was like for them at the time, everything. It plays everything out and records in onto a tape, but if it's programmed up wrong-" Explained Number Ten.

"It will erase your memories." Finished Jack. "A good two years of your memories if your lucky, if not, it could be all of them."

"I am not going in that thing" said Martha determinedly

"Oh, you don't have to". The guards pointed their guns at Martha and The Doctors.

"You chose Rose Tyler. Let us see your memories, or they all die."

* * *

_Right……. Tell me what you think and if you don't get something, (Rose isn't friends with the Master it is a plot, don't worry) Hope you like it and hope you review._

_Please._


	10. Chapter 10

The Oblivious Importance of Jimmy Stone

by TeggieLady

"You don't have to do this, why do you want her anyway? Please, you don't-" Ten tried to argue.

"There's no use Doctor, its time." Cried the Master happily as Rose walked towards the chair. The Master clicked his fingers and two other guards appeared out of a mysterious dark grey smoke, with no smell or after effects. They watched as Rose sat in the chair, her eyes fixed on the Master's as his lips turned into a narrow smile.

As Rose leant down onto it, the guards adjusted the height. Jack suddenly remembered Lisa, Ianto's cybersized girlfriend and the chair she had made Gwen sit on. Very much like this, operations and abominations only. Cold dread washed through him and, he started to yell almost as loud as the Tenth Doctor in protest. Why her? Why Rose….?

_Because she meant something to you _

The Helmet was on and the machine started. A guard took out a needle (Martha really wished she hadn't wondered if it was clean or not) and jabbed it sharply into Rose's left hand, the other guard did the same on the right. Rose only gave a small whimper in protest. Tiny holes were made so that even smaller plastic clear wires could be screwed into her hands. Her waist and chest was strapped to the chair in a thick brown buckle belt.

It was a horrible sight to behold.

The machine made a noise, half like a washing machine and half like a rollercoaster getting ready to go up the largest hill...the noises got louder and louder, more mechanical and unrecognisably alien. The small lights along the side of the control box lit up.

_Drummmmmm wushhhhhhh dummm Washhh dummm wahhh dumm wash dumm wash DUM!!_

Bright light flashed before everyone's eyes as Rose fell into unconsciousness. The others saw everything go black for just a second, no longer than that. It was their last glance of the lab before reality shifted around them.

The Time Lords, the Freak and the human opened their eyes to see themselves standing in Jackie Tyler's bedroom.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Where are we?" asked Martha.

"Obviously some point in Miss Tyler's life, early on as we're only just started." The Master said in his own patronising way, as he rubbed his hand with glee. All this was being recorded and all he had to do was send it to his real self. It was time to sit back and enjoy.

"Jackie Tyler's bedroom. Rose's mum." Said Number Nine, recognizing it easily.

Everyone turned around to look at him.

"Something very unfortunate happened when we met, I don't want to talk about it." He answered snidely.

"Jackie came onto him at her bedroom door while wearing a dressing gown." Added Number Ten helpfully.

"What were you doing in the Tyler House?" Asked Number Three.

The same time as Jack said "Is she hot?"

"It doesn't matter, I just-"

Jackie sat on her bed and flicked through a photo album. Suddenly she turned and looked straight at the intruders.

"Can she see us?" Asked Martha.

"Don't be ridiculous, it's just a memory." Answered Number Five.

"Like a Penivior." Agreed Number Ten, earning himself a look of disapproval from Three and Five.

"_**Come here." Jackie said kindly.**_

The intruders spun around. Behind them was an open door, where a very young girl was peeking in.

"_**Rose. Come here**_." Smiled Jackie, patting the side of the bed next to her.

Rose Tyler, age six, ran and sat on her mum's bed, ready to see what her mother was looking at.

Jackie pointed to a photo. _**"Who's that? It's your daddy. You weren't old enough to remember when he died. 1987. 7th of November. Do you remember what I told you? The day that Stuart Hoskins and Sarah Clarke got married?"**_

"Rose's earliest memory is learning about her Dad, she was only six months old when he died, hit by a car." Explained Number Ten. "Good man, very good man."

"Yeah, he was." Agreed Number Nine, to everyone's surprise.

"You just met him." Stated Ten, while Nine nodded his head.

"Shouldn't have put her through that." He shook his head lightly.

"_**He was always having adventures. Oh, he would have loved to have seen you now."**_ The family scene played out oblivious of its importance.

"How old is she?" inquired Martha.

"_**People say there was this girl... and she sat with Pete while he was dying. And she held his hand. Then she was gone. Never found out who she was."**_

"About six, so it's… 1992 ish, I'd say." Said Jack, not taking his eyes off the scene.

Not even as it faded into something different.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Rose Tyler ran.

Her school bag hit the back of her knees as she ran to catch the bus that was already speeding away. At fifteen, the dark haired girl knew the fateful signs of a bus she had no hope of catching. Unfortunately, it really was as her mother called it "One of those days".

Rose swore loudly as the bus passed the corner and she stopped running. Her bag fell of her shoulder, so she took hold of the strap and gave it a hard kick. Sighing, she started to walk to school.

Her school shoes were rubbing and she was sure her excessive amounts of carefully placed makeup were smudged. Rose slowed down as she got near the school gate, turning it into a much more sophisticated walk. A good looking boy of about seventeen or eighteen caught her eye as she walked past the gate. He caught her gaze and smirked.

When Rose was asked why she was late by the science teacher, she replied the standard, "the bus was late". It was only after the teacher pointed out that everyone else who usually caught the same bus with her were on time that Rose admitted defeat and received the detention, gracefully.

"Mum is going to kill me." Rose told Sharean plainly at break time.

"Nah, just tell her you're over at mine." Her friend offered.

"Yeah and then when that-woman-with-no-life phones up to check?"

"Teachers really don't have a life." Sharean stated confidently.

"I bet they live at school." Rose laughed.

It was then that Rose noticed the same guy who had stood outside the gate earlier. He was now standing in a semi circle with other boys his age near the art block, smoking. The mystery man was leaning against the wall.

"Hey, Sharean, who's that?"

"Who?" asked Sharean, vaguely interested.

"That bloke there, the one leaning against the wall."

"That? Oh, he's Kerry's Brother. You know Kerry, with the belly button ring that got all infected?"

"Yeah." Replied Rose, still looking at him.

"That's Jimmy Stone."

* * *

The Doctors watched in horror as Rose Tyler slowly destroyed herself. First it was a simple date with the mysterious stranger, then it was parties, clubs and pubs. Usually with Rose as the youngest there. Drinking suddenly went onto smoking, which then seemed to go to drugs. It was only when Rose came home three hours past curfew that Jackie decided that she would never see Jimmy again. But Rose wasn't deterred, just seeing him in secret anyway, after all that seemed more exciting. She went from lying about being at her friend's house when she was really at detention, to saying she was in detention and really being around at Jimmy's.

To make things worse, Jimmy Stones didn't really seem to like her half as much as she liked him. Sometimes it was clear to even Rose that he was just using her. Unfortunately, by then, she didn't care anymore. After all, he could learn to love her, couldn't he?

"Jimmy? What are you doing when you leave school?" Rose asked one night as they were walking to a club. Rose was sixteen and stressing about her options for the future.

"My uncles got this warehouse up in Aberdeen." Jimmy replied in a bored arrogant tone. A tone that was all the time mocking the Doctors to hit him. If they could.

"I'm gonna move up there, it would be great, me and you in Aberdeen. Where is that anyway?"

"No idea." Replied Rose unfocused. "Suppose I could live there with you and still work as a cop."

"What!" Yelled Jimmy, stopping suddenly. Yanking his hands from his pockets, he turned to face her.

"I wanna be a police officer .I told you last night, don't you remember?" Rose frowned in confusion, looking up at him, worry etched on her face.

"I thought you were joking!" Jimmy yelled louder, his hands flying up to his hair as he ran it through the forest of gel and hair dye there. He had had it done last week, same time as Rose, after convincing her to dye her brown hair blonde.

"Why not, I wouldn't be that bad at it, would I?" asked Rose, self consciously.

"What?... yeah yeah you would, completely not your thing. Rose, you can't be a copper!" He grabbed her wrist.

"Yeah, but…"

"No, Rose, if you do that, we're over." He turned and walked away.

Rose looked down at her wrist as tiny dark purple finger prints started to appear.

That was the first time he hurt her.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

It was only days later when he hit her.

They were arguing about some girl at the pub. He had been high and had flirted shamelessly with that tramp. Rose had accused him of cheating and had stormed out, Jimmy following and yelling at her all the way back to her flat. Until, finally, she stopped, turned around and was met by his fist. He had, of course, apologised the next day, crying and saying it was because he 'loved her so much.' Rose was back with him by lunch time.

Rose got accepted at the college she wanted, despite the numerous teachers claiming that she 'could do better' than what her G.C.S.E. predicted. Jimmy told her soon after that they wouldn't be able to spend as much time together if she went away. His charm to the maximum and full of promises he had no intention of keeping, persuaded Rose to quit school. Making out that he would support her keep, her safe and that she was the only one for him. After all, "You could never make it as a cop anyway, too much work," and he was the only person who would ever want her.

Jimmy didn't like Mickey. He knew he fancied Rose and always got in his way. So Rose stopped talking to Mickey. Jackie never liked Jimmy so a few days after her seventeenth birthday, Rose left. They rented a flat not far from Jackie's, even though, if they ever ran into each other, Jackie refused to talk.

One night Jimmy came home drunk. He started yelling and saying "it was all her fault" and "nothing would ever work out right." Rose tried to calm him down only for him to take a swing at her. His fist connected hard with her check. Rose shook it off and put him to bed.

Rose woke up the next morning to find Jimmy, his stuff and anything of value of hers was missing.

Rose knocked on Jackie front door three days later with a black eye and a bin bag full of clothes. Rose Tyler's bid for freedom had lasted just seven days.

* * *

That was it, the life of Rose Tyler. A few weeks later she heard that Jimmy had gone to prison for five years, for a class A drugs felony. He had been selling drugs to minors, somewhere in Aberdeen.

Rose Tyler's alarm went of at seven am, just like it did every morning, signalling to Rose that it was time to get up.

Quick cup of tea; goodbye to her mum; catch the bus. Clock watch until break, then until lunch. If is Monday or Wednesday Mickey will eat with her, if it wasn't she would go to Greg's or somewhere with the girls from work. She didn't like spending much time with them as they all had something to look forward to. Whether it was a baby, a promotion or a week in Barcelona, everyone had something. That or it was just part time. A quick way to earn some cash then go on to University. Rose wouldn't. She couldn't get the money to do an evening class or something and her G.C.S.E.s weren't the pride of her mother's mantel for the entire world to see.

After work Rose stopped at the chip shop, and then caught the bus. She looked out of the window blankly. This was her life, everything that those nineteen years had been leading up to. Work, chips, telly. Repeat until insane. Of course, there was Mickey, but…he was nice, safe and well… he was a really nice bloke. He would never hurt her or leave her, she didn't feel threatened or pressured. Really, he was great, Rose could see her whole life in front of her, every choice and decision set in stone. Rose Tyler's life was already lived and she was just following the instruction booklet. Unenthusiastically.

When Rose got home, her mother was just about to go out.

"Thought you were going out with…. Ben tomorrow?" Rose called as she picked up the magazine from the coffee table.

"Mark! No, can't there's a match on tomorrow night, pub'll be packed. There's a curry in the freezer if you want it! Bye!" and she was off.

* * *

The alarm rang, seven o'clock. Rose sat up in shock. She licked her dry lips to get the morning breath taste from her mouth.

Quick cup of tea; goodbye from her mum; catch the bus; go to work. Clock watch until break then until lunch. Meet Mickey for lunch then back to work.

Home time, walk out the door and…..

Get caught by the security guard. Someone had to deliver the lottery to the electrician. Rose sighed, she might just catch the bus if she ran, if she didn't, it would be half an hour wait. Oh, well.

The lift landed with a 'ping'.

"Wilson?" Rose yelled, walking further down the corridor. "Wilson, I've got the lottery money. Wilson?"

She knocked on Wilson's door. She heard a noise and turned around. Thinking it was another shop assistant, she called that they were closing the shop.

Annoyed that there was no answer, she said quietly herself "Come on." She was starting to get bit freaked out. Further along the corridor there was a noise, Rose looked at where it was coming from.

"Hello? Hello, Wilson, it's Rose. Hello? Wil- Wilson?"

She followed the noise until she got to a storage room, making sure to turn on the lights.

"Wilson? Wilson?"

She tried the fire door on the other side. The door she had entered through closed abruptly. Shocked, she ran back, trying the handles again, harder, but they would not open. There was small sound from behind her.

"Is that someone mucking about?" asked Rose now scared and embarrassed, she ran back into the room; yelling once more asking who it was.

A shop mannequin turned its head; its invisible eyes looking at her as it stepped out of its hiding place.

Rose, now fighting top keep her hysteria down, turned around and backed away.

"Heh... you got me, very funny." _Please be a joke, or at least me going slightly mad…_ her mind begged. The dummy didn't answer; it just kept walking now with two more followers.

"Right, I've got the joke! Whose idea was this? Was it Derek's?" _It's gotta be_. No one else is that sad. Rose could feel another plastic person behind her.

"Derek, is this you?" _Please be Derek._

Now an army of plastic emerges, all men accounted for, Rose tried to back up only to fall on an abandoned box. She pulled herself up as quickly as possible, now forced to go further away back against the wall. The dummy lifted its shapeless hand and Rose automatically prepared herself for the strike. Her eyes closed.

This is it.

Rose Tyler's life.

She was right, no future…

_It ends here._

A warm male hand grabbed hers and she looked up at its owner, meeting bright blue eyes. Time stopped and then resumed itself… Very fast.

"Run."

* * *

_Ok that's it… well chapter 10 anyway. Sorry for the wait it's just until recently my computer was on the dining room table…..in pieces._

_Questions and comments are always welcome, and I hope you keep reading and a big prize if anyone can guess why the chapter is called_

_"The Oblivious Importance of Jimmy Stone"_

_Oh and shout out to my Beta for reading and my Mum for lending me her computer, (yes she reads my fanfic)_


	11. Chapter 11

Who's afraid?

By TeggieLady

Hey sorry for the delay, computer problems, one new part needed after another. The stuff in **bold** is from http://who-transcripts. and the stuff in _italics _is The Doctors' opinion. The Master, Martha, Jack and Doctors 3,5, 9 and 10 are watching Roses' thoughts so the rest is her opinion………. In for a big chapt hope you enjoy!

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Rose ran.

Faster than she had ever run in her life, she felt happy and safe. Sure, a second ago she had been attacked by some crazy psychos with nothing better to do other than to nearly give her heart attack, but now…

She was free.

"But how could she do that?" Asked the trainee Doctor, "Throw away her life, her family and her friends… just for some guy?" Martha tried to imagine what her mother's reaction would be if she'd said that. That she would be quitting school to run off with an older man, who more or less controlled her life. Not a very pretty picture.

"Rose is a romantic." Grinned Jack, pleased that Jimmy wasn't the end of her childish theories about life and love. "It's what makes her Rose."

"Romantic, young and in love." Cried number Three suddenly, "is there anything better?"

"Yes, not being involved with a scoundrel like Mr. Stone." Relied Five snidely.

"**Very clever, nice trick! Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?" **

The on lookers frowned in confusion.

**  
"****Why would they be students?" **

**  
"****I don't know..."** answered Rose, having lost most of her confidence.

**  
"****Well, you said it!" **

**  
"****Cause... to get that many people dressed up and being silly... they gotta be students." **

"Two thousand and five, no world wide accepted belief in aliens yet, Rose is just guessing." Explained Nine.

"Deducing Watson." Smiled Ten with a far off look in his eyes. The others gave him a strange look.

**  
"****I've had enough of this now!"** Rose yelled to the Doctors retreating back, **"****Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there? I said, who are they?" **

"God she's stubborn," mumbled Jack.

"…**Go home, go on! Go and have your lovely beans on toast."** Said the younger number Nine patronisingly.

**  
"****Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed." **

As if anyone would believe her anyway.

Trying to understand whether the beans on toast comment was an intended insult or the army solider bloke really was that mental, Rose turned away.

The door opened once more.

**  
"****I'm the Doctor, by the way, what's your name?"**

Rose ignored her mother's advice about never telling a stranger, who was as strange as a stranger could get, your name.

"**Rose."**

The smile she got in return was worth it.

"**Nice to meet you, Rose." **

Pause.

"**Run for your life." **

"The day you met!" cried The Master with demeaning glee.

"Yep, never stood a chance. The most jeopardy friendly person I've ever met." Nine felt a familiar rush of protectiveness and glared at the other Time Lord, only then realising that Ten seemed to be a little distracted.

Ten was gazing at Rose and was being unnaturally quiet, having not said anything other than the "Watson" comment a while ago. He seemed to be transfixed on Rose, watching her every moment. He didn't even laugh when she almost got run over by the Taxi and then turned around and missed the explosion. Or her walking past the TARDIS in her hurry.

………………………………………………………………………

Jackie made a big deal out of it, of course.

Always with that dramatic streak she possessed, Rose had to listen to her mother claim that she had been seconds away from death. If she only knew. The older woman's insistence that she do an interview, for money, only served to irritate her further.

Rose watched telly, while her boyfriend asked her if she wanted to watch him watch football, and her mum tried to make a few quid while telling everyone she'd ever met, that Rose was **"lucky to be alive!"** Rose just wanted to go to sleep. Even as she did, though, she couldn't keep that man in a leather jacket from invading her thoughts.

The next morning Rose and her mother were discussing the future.

"**There's Finches... you could try them. They've always got jobs." **

"**Oh, great. The butcher's."** Replied Rose in a sarcastic tone.

This was Rose's life, no real career, just one job after the next.

"**Well, it might do you good! That shop was giving you airs and graces. And I'm not joking about getting compensation - you've had genuine shock and trauma! Arianna got two thousand quid off the council just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek!"**

Rose pulled a face and turned to look at her mum.

"**I know she ****is**** Greek, but that's not the point - it's a valid claim." **

Rose heard a rattling noise, she got up and walked towards the door, crouched down to have a look at what was causing the disturbance.

It was then that a strange man stuck his head through her cat flap.

After both the Doctor and Rose had been attacked by a plastic hand and broken her mother's coffee table by rolling around on it. After said man had given his speech about the turn of the earth.

" **The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour. And I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go..."**

After all that, the Doctor had then told her to forget all about him.

As if…

Naturally, Rose met someone on the internet and went to their house. In a bid to learn more about the Doctor she tried find as much information about him as she could. Mickey insisted in going with her.

The others watched as Clive showed Rose pictures from the Doctor's past, claiming him to be in Political diaries, conspiracy theories and ghost stories. Clive explained how he thought it was a title passed from father to son. It seemed all much speculation for Rose's taste.

"**November the 22nd, 1963. The assassination of President Kennedy." **

"**Going further back... April 1912. ****This is a photo of the Daniels family, Southampton. And friend.****This was taken the day before they were due to sail off for the New World. On the Titanic. And for some unknown reason, they cancelled the trip and survived."**

"**1883. Another Doctor. And look - the same lineage. He's identical. This one washed up on the coast of Sumatra on the very day Krakatoa exploded." **

The Doctors weren't sure if they should be flattered that someone had devoted their entire life to following him, or very very afraid.

"**The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, he's there. He has a storm in his wake. And he has one constant companion." **

"Wonder how many times he's practiced that in the mirror?" Asked Number Nine.

"**Death." **

_His life wasn't that bad…. Was it?_

"**Who is he? Who do you think he is?" **Rose eagerly asked.

It was then that Clive said the most sensible thing he'd said all day.

"**I think he's the same man. I think he's immortal. I think he's an alien from another world."**

That was the line that had clinched it, she'd had her thoughts on it before but now she was certain.

"**Alright! He's a nutter! Off his head! ****Complete**** online conspiracy freak. You win!"**

Next was dinner with Mickey. This ended badly partly because he was a plastic version of her boyfriend and partly because the Doctor ripped his head off.

The world had gone mad around her. Her boyfriend was doing a Terminator and people around her were frozen in horror. Screaming filled the air. It was Rose, who did the only thing she could do and the only thing no one else had thought of.

"She pulled the fire alarm." Whispered Three.

Nine nodded, grinning madly like his face would soon split in two. Martha stared at him, confused. "Why's that important?"

The Master snorted…

"Its not. What she did was completely stupid. She got everyone out the room, sure, but it's their own fault if they didn't move before. She should have just left them there… Stupid humans!" The value of human life always did mean little to The Master. "I'll never understand why people do that."

"Thinking of others in a crisis and showing compassion... Hum… No, you wouldn't." Agreed Ten, bitterly. They turned to watch the rest unfold.

"**We can't hide inside a wooden box!"** With no other option, Rose followed the Doctor inside.

Rose took one look inside the TARDIS and then ran out, slamming the door behind her. She walked determinedly around the TARDIS, trying to make sense of it size. The Auton was coming loudly, so Rose had no choice but going back inside the 'box' that would soon after become as familiar as home. Now, it was nothing but undeniably alien.

"**Where do you want to start?" **

**  
"****Um... the inside's bigger than the outside?"** _Everyone says it at least once, Rose wouldn't be an exception to that. _

"**It's alien."** _Fact. _

**  
"****Are you alien?"** _Ten points. No one had ever accused him of that first hand before and not pointed a gun or run off screaming at the answer. _

"**Is that alright?" **

"**Yeah." **

Rose realised the London eye was the center of the Nestene Consciousness base, before the Doctor had even thought there was a chance it may have been in plain sight. She had only been doing this 'saving the planet' thing for five minutes.

"**Get out, Rose! Just get out! Run!"** The Doctor begged Rose to go just as part of the ceiling collapsed.

"**The stairs have gone!" **

With no way of getting into the TARDIS, or out of the crumbling room, they were trapped.

"**We're gonna die!"** yelled Mickey.

Rose watched the Doctor struggle to get to the anti-plastic and away from the shop dummies. As far as she saw it, Rose had one choice. She stood up.

"**Just leave him!"** Mickey yelled after Rose. **"There's nothing you can do!"** Just as Rose picked up a fire emergency axe.

"**I've got no A Levels..." **No life really, but she would not die without trying to live.

"**No job..." **That's all there is in the world work, eat and sleep everthing else is just colour.

"**No future." **Marry Mickey, have kids then die. She had a future she just didn't want it.

She hacked at the chain by the wall.

"**But I tell you what I have got. Jericho Street Junior School under 7s gymnastic team."**

The chain came lose.

"**I got the bronze!"**

Rose swung from the chain, over the gap across the Consciousness, and kicked hard at the Auton holding the Doctor. The anti-plastic fell into the creature below as it screamed. It wasn't long before it started to die.

**  
"Yo****u were useless in there."** Rose teased. **"You'd be dead if it wasn't for me."**

"**Yes, I would. Thank you. Right then! I'll be off! Unless, uh... I don't know... you could come with me." **

Number Nine smiled at the memory, he never would regret asking her to come.

Twice…

"**Don't! He's an alien! He's a thing!"** Mickey, as open minded as ever.

"**H****e's ****not**** invited." **Not that he would have anyway.

"**Is it always this dangerous?"** Does she really want that? A life where any second she could die?

**"****Yeah." **

She says no. But the grin she gave him just before told him it wasn't because she was scared. After all, someone had to baby-sit her boyfriend.

"**Okay. See you around."** No, he won't. All the places in the Universe, why would he want to come to London again?

And then he was gone. It was over. Rose Tyler's plea for independence, adventure and freedom went unanswered by her own means.

Swish…

"**By the way - did I mention, it also travels in time?" **

Then it's the end of the World.

Her world anyway.

He shouldn't have shown her that, never. Especially not on her first go. But he needed her to understand. What its like to be alone, like that. Completely alone. She had culture shook, but not because of the aliens. The blue skinned people, the talking head or the man in a wheel chair that was kind enough to give her "the gift of bodily saliva"... Nor was it the one most alien of all, the once human Cassandra, that ticked her off.

The shock was actually seeing it be destroyed.

The Earth was dead. Gone

They went back for chips. A simple thing, a human thing and he knew she would never really understand it, but he told her anyway.

"**My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust. Before it's time." **

"What happened?" Caring, wonderful look on her face made it hard to refuse an answer.

"**There was a war. And we lost." **

"**I'm a Time Lord. I'm the last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. I'm the only survivor. I'm left travelling on my own because there's no one else."**

**  
"****There's me..." **

"Everyone's dead?" Number Three whispered.

"Yeah, just me and him." Ten muttered.

"Susan? Romana?" Five was soon cut off by Nine before he could name any other ghosts from his past.

"Gone."

"**You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home?"**

"**I don't know. I want..."** It was always best to stick to what you know. **"Oh! Can you smell chips?"**

The Doctor laughed out loud, a clear contrast from his previous stance.

"**Yeah. Yeah!"** Delighted that she could take joy in such a small thing. 

"**I want chips." **

"**Right then, before you get me back in that box, chips it is, and you can pay." **

"**No money." **

"**What sort of date are you? Come on then, tightwad, chips are on me… **

**We've only got five billion years before the shops close..."**

The Doctor, then, took Rose to the past.

"**That's so weird... it's Christmas."** Even now she couldn't get her head around everything.

"**All yours." **

"**But, it's like... think about it, though. Christmas. 1860. Happens once. Just once, and it's gone. It's finished. It'll never happen again. Except for you." **

_The Doctor was suddenly reminded how lonely life is. _

"**You can go back and see days that are dead and gone and a hundred thousand sunsets ago... no wonder you never stay still..." **

_Yeah… that's the reason why he ran so fast and so far away._

"**Not a bad life." **

**  
"****Better with two." **_Better with you._

Rose looked at herself in the mirror. She swayed from side to side, grimaced and then swayed again.

Finally she took a deep breath and walked into the console room. Oh God, she couldn't imagine what she looked like, even though she had spent far too long in front of the mirror earlier.

"**Blimey!"** Not the reaction she had hoped for.

"**Don't laugh!"** Insecurities she had thought long hidden were aired. She tried to laugh it off.

"**You look beautiful!" **

_And she did. Had then like she did in a memory. Just another point in time long gone. _

Rose stopped laughing, and suddenly things had become awkward.

"**... considering." **

"**Considering what?" **

"**That you're human!" **

She was unsure how to take the comment**. "****I ****think**** that's a compliment..."**

_Please take it as one._

"**Aren't ****you**** going to change?" **

"**I've changed my jumper! Come on!" **

Rose is soon drugged in Cardiff, not London, and shoved in the back of a hearse. Then wakes up in a room with Zombies and is rescued by an alien and Charles Dickens.

"**And you've come such a long way."** Said the servant girl Gwyneth.

"**You're from London. I've seen London in drawings, but never like that." **

"**All those people rushing about. Half naked, for shame. And the noise... and the metal boxes racing past... and the birds in the sky... they're metal as well. Metal birds with people in them. People flying. And you - you've flown so far, further than anyone! The things you've seen... the darkness... the Big Bad Wolf—" **

That was the first time Rose had heard the words "Bad Wolf", but it wouldn't be the last.

Gwyneth saved the world. She died but saved the world, and no on e will ever know.

Rose thought about her. When she was talking to her Mum. Then to the Doctor, he was nine hundred years old.

The people she had met in just a few days, had died. Nine hundred year…..how much death had the Doctor seen? How long before she would have had enough?

The Doctors smiled as Rose saved their life. The Doctor saved the world but in her human way Rose saved them. And he would never forget that.

Jackie wanted Rose to stay. Of course she did, but she just asked her to stay for dinner. She said she was ready understand. But the Doctor made her chose, him or her mum. Her mother or the man she knew for just three days?

Rose chose him.

_Alright…. What do you think???? If I could have chosen any other Doctor it would have been Four but I just don't know enough about him to do it._

_Where do you think this is going? Tell me please, cos I really don't want to be predictable._

_Interesting FACT: David Tennant and Peter Davidson are doing a Children in Need sketch……as Doctor 5 and 10!!!! They meet up!!!!!!!! _

_Hummmmf what will the grumpy 80's Doc think of our Geeky modern one??_


	12. Chapter 12

**The Big Bad Wolf**

**By TeggieLady**

Sorry for the delay, but my computer had to be rushed to the operation deck. Prodded, poked and cleaned I know it will never be the same again. The Specialist is sure it will make a full recovery and the Doctors are pleased. (Though chocolate for the traumatized owner is always welcome.)

They had met the 'last Dalek' in existence and for the first time the Doctor scared her.

Not because the doors had closed with Rose on the wrong side, (she understands about that, of course she does). It wasn't his silence when they got the final body count, two hundred personnel dead, all because she felt sorry for it and set it free.

It was none of those things.

Mind you, she had been a little confused when the Dalek had spoken, loudly, in its eerie mechanical…

"**What use are emotions if you will not save the woman you love?" **

But that's not important. It was a Dalek, a machine, a soulless killing thing. What did it know about love? Unless it had picked that up from her.

What frightened her, though, was how broken he was. How truly, completely shattered he had been. Him, who hated guns with a passion, and war, and fighting, and dying, and everything that could bring apart the very universe he had been willing to give his life to protect.

Death was not the answer…

"**I've got to do this. I've got to end it. The Daleks destroyed my home, my people. I've got **_**nothing **_**left." **

The Dalek had changed because of her and the Daleks had changed the Doctor. And Rose had never hated anything or anyone more because of that single fact. She hated the Daleks, because they had managed to reduce the Doctor to a broken shell.

"**They are dead because of us." **

The Daleks was right, of course. She had set it free, and it had killed all those people. It was her fault they were dead. The Doctor might no have been talking about it, but he knew it too.

It was all her fault.

* * *

Then, Satellite five.

Rose made yet another mistake.

She walked in, had beef smoothie, shown such flare and infusionism, it had looked like she had been doing it her entire life. The looks though, constant in the Doctor's direction, those she couldn't deny. She had longed to be with him.

She hadn't traveled all those years in the future to sit at a fast food restaurant, not without the Doctor that is.

Adam didn't understand that and had crumbled under pressure, ending up doing what he wanted for his own selfish means. Rose tried to understand, asked intelligent questions that helped the Doctor to see things from a fresh, new, brighter point of view… something he had lost long ago. Sure, she made mistakes, but that's only because she had tried to help other people.

Not because of selfish reasons.

He called her the best, something that no one had ever called her as. And for the first time, she felt like she was.

* * *

Rose watched her Dad die once. She had wanted to be there for him. She couldn't though. So, the Doctor had taken her again. He knew better, no doubt, but for her, he had been willing to bend some rules. When it came to the second time, she couldn't do it.

So she saved him.

The Doctor felt used and compared her to Adam. The first time he called her a stupid ape and meant it to hurt. It was the only time he ever would, but she will never forget it. The fall from that pedestal.

She was just like everyone else.

He threatened to leave her in the nineteen eighties and he wouldn't, she had known he wouldn't.

He'd never do something like that.

Her faith in him had always been unwavering.

The world fell slowly apart around her. Her mum and dad (her childhood imagination of Romeo and Juliet) were fighting and the Doctor hated her. A low point in a life filled with bad moments.

And then the Doctor died, gone… and it was all her fault.

She had killed him.

"**I'm the oldest thing in here." **

Her Dad saved the world, the universe, like the hero she had always thought him to be.

"**The Doctor really cared about you." **

Rose looked up, shocked.

"**He didn't want you to go through it again if there was another way. Now there isn't." **

"**The car that should've killed me, love. It's here. The Doctor worked it out way back, but he, er - he tried to protect me."**

"**Still - he's not in charge anymore. I am." **

"**But you can't..."**

What she had always wanted, more than anything in the world.

"**Who am I, love?"**

"**My Daddy." **

And then he died, while she held his had, because she hadn't wanted him to die on his own.

* * *

"She takes after Pete." Five said, understanding that she had been young and really hadn't meant any of it. There is a certain curiosity in his eyes.

Ten said nothing.

"I didn't mean it." Replied a shocked Nine. "When I called her a 'stupid ape'. I didn't mean it."

* * *

The Doctor took her to Woman Wept, and Rose had loved it.

"**It's beautiful." **She murmured, the fierce waves frozen high above their heads.

Rose looked to the Doctor and realised then she may have a problem.

Darkness all year round and previous tears cool against her face.

It really couldn't get much better.

Then the Doctor walked ahead and Rose picked up a handful of snow, making it into a ball and throwing it at the back of his head. It had been too good a chance to let it pass.

For all his 'temperature doesn't affect me' boasting earlier, it appeared that frozen water down the back of his neck did make him shiver.

Soon, they were involved in an energetic snow ball fight, which left then both cold and exhausted.

Rose flopped gracefully onto the snow and looked up at the star sprinkled sky. The back of her coat was soaking up water and soon she would have to get up. No matter, it was worth.

Then the Doctor dropped to his knees, lying next to her. _For him too, there was no where else he'd rather be._

They laid laughing there for a long while. Time really didn't matter.

Then she caught his eye, leant over, her eyes flickering to his lips…

"**Look at you, you're turning blue,"** the Doctor sat up and started to rise.

"**Humans"** and he had shock his head.

Deflated, Rose could do little but shrug.

After all, she was just another _stupid_ ape.

* * *

The mauve alert echoed though the TARDIS.

Once they landed, the Doctor tried to tell her all about the psychic paper, explaining to her once again how it worked.

Rose, still feeling rejected and stupid, refused to listen and stayed behind.

There was a voice on the roof top. The Doctor, no where to be seen. So Rose set off to help the child. How hard could it have been? She followed him as he got further and further away.

She ended up on a broken ladder, the child no where in sight. And as a rope fell down by her side, Rose had no other choice but to take it, or fall.

The rope started to pull away, Rose high off the ground, getting higher and higher until she could just see the top of Big Ben. She strained her neck to look at what she was holding onto.

And then the air raid siren started.

Rose, high over London, was suddenly hit with the realization that she was in the middle of the Second World War, holding on to a German barrage balloon.

It couldn't get any worse.

She started to lose her grip, sure of her imminent fall...

Rose was saved by a con man, who thought she had been more important then she had actually been. Realising that, she drank far less than she could handle, getting him to tell her exactly what his plan was.

It had been nice, though, to have someone look at you like they fancy you. Even if he had just been playing her.

It had been nice.

* * *

"She knew!" Jack was flabbergasted. He'd put his best techniques into trying to impress her and all he'd done was tell her he was behind the strange unidentified spaceship.

"Remember how much she drank on her twentieth?" asked number Ten smiling slightly. "Takes more than that to get Rose drunk".

Martha found herself confused. For so long she had thought The Doctor and Rose were like heroes in a love story, that it had never occurred to her that Rose may have doubted how he had felt about her.

They got trapped with the zombies. No way out. The Doctor was too busy showing off to realize, earlier, that they were in the child's room and Jack prepared himself for a fight. Rose grabbed Jack's wrist and pointed it at the floor.

She saved them and all the Doctor could say was that he could have used a little warning.

_Figures. _

The Doctor saved the day, though, just like he always did. Except, that time, just that one, everybody got to live.

But it was Rose, who saved Jack.

And they danced a wonderful dance.

_Jack was right. We do make a "sweet" couple, even if we're not, or ever will be._

The Ninth Doctor wondered if Rose had ever thought that, and if not began to wonder why.

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They went to Cardiff, of all places. Rose wanted to see Mickey, the passport had just been a silly excuse on her part.

Mickey had gotten tired of waiting, though and got himself a girlfriend. She was happy for him. Really, she was.

But home was getting a little further away each time she came back. That's the first time she noticed that.

"Blaidd Drwg" got the Doctor's attention. Worried, he couldn't help but know something was on the way….Something bad.

THE BAD WOLF…

Blon Fel Fotch looked into the light of the TARDIS and it changed her.

Rose couldn't deny it to herself anymore. The TARDIS was truly alive.

* * *

The android had been expecting her. It even had her name on the podium next to the other contestants.

Well….the Anne Droid. That had been a scary thought.

They couldn't run.

If they ran, they died. So they all stayed in their places. It would have been every man for himself, if not for the man next to Rose, who thought she was too stupid to be real competition. She survived a little longer for being blond. Not long, mind you, but long enough for the Doctor to come crashing through the door.

Her hero, who helplessly watched her disintegrate into thin air.

No one was more surprise than Rose, when she awoke on a Dalek spaceship.

"**We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated." **

"**No." **

"**Explain yourself." **

"**It means **_**NO**_**." **

"**But she will be destroyed." **Confusion, behavior not compatible with their understanding.

"**No!'Cause this is what **_**I'm **_**gonna do - I'm gonna rescue her." **Determination.

"**I'm gonna save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek Fleet, and then I'm gonna save the Earth, and then just to finish off, I'm gonna wipe every last **_**stinking **_**Dalek outta the sky!" **

"**But you have no weapons! No defenses! No plan!" **

"**Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death? Rose?"**

"**Yes, Doctor?" **Frightened, but strong. Always strong.

**  
"****I'm coming to get you." **And he did.

They met the God of all Daleks, a paradox onto itself, and the Doctor didn't a plan. Though he rarely, if ever, had one where the Daleks were concerned, that was much worse. It seemed like there was no way out.

The Doctor suggested a Delta Wave, knowing what that meant.

* * *

"Are you insane?!!" Yelled Number Three. "The fleet was on their way and if you didn't program it correctly it would kill everything in sight. You were seriously considering killing every man, woman and child on Earth!?"

Nine just stared, in shook, at his future.

"That's why I sent Rose home." Replied Ten.

"You would make an excellent super villain, you know" said the Master conversationally. Ten felt a shiver run down his spine. He couldn't deny his enemy's observation.

* * *

Rose didn't say a word when he flirted with that **"Lynda with a Y"**, though it's clear she really wasn't pleased. Still, better a human than a Tree.

"**You are worth fighting for." **

_True to this day._

Jack kissed Rose then the Doctor, her question unanswered. He couldn't promise he would be okay.

"**We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989." **

"**Yeah, but you'd never do that." **A small smile.

"**Never even occurred to you, did it?" **

"**Well, I'm just too good!" **Yeah she was_. Is_

He jumped up, exited, calling her **"a ****genius!" **He kissed her on the forehead, saying some garbled explanation jus to get her into the TARDIS. He walked out, smile vanishing and the TARDIS started to move.

She would have never gone by choice. Never.

"**This is Emergency Program One."**

That single phrase started her world into pieces.

**  
"****Rose, now listen; this is important. If this message is activated, then it can only mean one thing. We must be in danger. And I mean fatal. I'm dead or about to die any second with no chance of escape. **

**And that's okay. Hope it's a good death."****  
**

"…**let the TARDIS die."**

"…**if you wanna remember me, then you can do one thing. That's all. One thing. Have a good life. Do that for me, Rose. **

**Have a fantastic life." **

One thought echoed through her brain…

"**Take me back! Take me back!" **but it wouldn't. It couldn't

* * *

Two hundred thousand years in her future the Doctor stood alone to die and Mickey and her mum wanted her to sit in some greasy spoon café, talking about Pizza and coleslaw.

And then she saw it. Just as Mickey was trying to pitch their original life plan once more… a life of normality, work and chips, she saw it.

_BAD WOLF._

Mickey's mini wasn't strong enough and she almost gave.

Her mum told her to give up, even.

"**Dad wouldn't give up." **

Jackie argued that he wasn't there and even if he was, he would have agreed with. But Rose knew better, because she had met him. And she told Jackie so.

"**The Doctor took me back in time, and I met Dad."**

"**Remember when Dad died...? There was someone with him. A girl. A blonde girl. She held his hand...You saw her from a distance, mum! You **_**saw **_**her! Think about it! That was **_**me. **_**You saw **_**me—"**_

"**Stop it." **She didn't want to hear it.

"_**That's **_**how good the Doctor is—"**

"**Stop it! Just stop it!"**

Jackie left in anger and then, later, came back with a bright yellow road side recovery truck. Bless her.

* * *

And then the imagine started to crackle around the spectators. The walls started to bleed into each other. Gold light surrounded them. The noise, almost unbearable.

"What's going on?!" shouted Martha over the din.

"Rose's memories are fading. This must be where her sense of realty weakened!" Number Ten yelled back.

Random words soon overshadowed the silence.

A forest, too bright and green appeared and Rose was running, getting closer and closer.

"**The abomination!" **

"**I create myself. I take the words...I scatter them in time and space." **

"**Rose, you've got to stop this."**

"**I want you safe."** _All to keep him safe. That's all, just to save him._

"**My Doctor. Protected from the false God."** _And he was. Her Doctor, always._

"**Everything dies."**

"**The Time War ends." **Rose suddenly saw a woman, long blonde hair blowing in the breeze. She started running faster, and faster, trying to get to her through the broken branches of the forest ground.

"**I will not die. I cannot die!"**

"**I bring life..." **the woman's back was still towards her, towards them, no matter how loud Rose yelled.

"**It's killing me ..."**

"**I think you need a Doctor." **And then the image faded, world turning completely black.

"Master!!" Yelled Doctor Number Ten, as the other Time Lord fell to the floor, unconscious.

_OK sorry for the delay. Tell me the truth, what do you think? This is not meant to be a Mary Sue fic and will get more serious. Three will not have a big part from the rest of the story and I'm trying to include 5 more._

_Shout out to;_

_bloodymary2_

_DragonLady_

_Beth_

_Tom._

_Again big apology about the computer issue but its ok, I think my dads' fixed it_.


	13. Chapter 13

**The Entourage.**

**By TeggieLady**

_Previously…_

"_Master!!" Yelled Doctor Number Ten, as the other Time Lord fell to the floor, unconscious._

Now…

"What's going on? What's happened?" Martha yelled, her voice suddenly out of place, when the noise turned into silence. The room went back to its calmer scene.

"I don't know." Admitted number Three, as he bent down to feel The Master's pulse.

"Wait…I thought he wasn't real? You know, like an image or something like that?" asked Martha, quieter.

"Indeed." Nodded number Five.

"Then, why can you touch him now?" She was determined to get too the bottom of this new mystery.

"Because, this isn't the real world…" Cried the exasperated leather-jacketed man. "This is Rose's mind and if she wants him to be solid, then he is. Only while we're here, of course. But still, he's real."

"What's that?" asked Jack. Once Three had been satisfied that the unconscious Time Lord was indeed alive, he had allowed himself to search the unconscious man's pockets.

There, he found a small box, like a human television remote control, only this one was a dark shade of green.

"It's a transporter." Three whispered dramatically, leaning in close. "If anything went wrong, he would have easily escaped instantly away into the real world."

"Great! Well, press the button and let's get out of here." Martha suggested, almost believing it was as easy as it sounded. She should have known better.

"It only carries two people."

"You take it." Said Number Ten, while he stared straight ahead, a bright white light shinning in the distance. Rose was waking up from her ordeal in the Gamestation. "You and the Master, take it, go back and then find a way to switch off the machine."

For once Nine agreed. He wouldn't say so, of course.

Three nodded also, hauling the Master to his feet with surprising strength. Prepared, he went to press the mauve coloured button on the transporter.

"Don't!" yelled Ten suddenly, gaining everyone attention, but the Master's. The evil mastermind was too busy drooling on Three's cape.

"Don't press anything unless you're sure."

A quick nod in agreement and then he and the Master were gone in a small flash of light.

"What do we do now?" asked Jack, just as the vision turned from black to the interior of the TARDIS console room.

"We wait". Replied Five.

* * *

"**It's like... there was this singing..."**

She just saw a jumble of images, mixed colours, bright lights and noises, no real recololection of what happened.

"**That's right! I sang a song and the Daleks ran away." **_No, that's not right_…..but she doesn't ask.

They just ran out of time.

Soon he's talking about dogs with no noses. Then, he called her name and smiled….more of a grin really. A maniac grin she had grown to love. Then he started talking about having two heads or, no head at all. She got confused.

And then she was scared.

The Doctor faltered, in pain.

And Rose got terribly afraid.

"**I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that!" **_So why did he do it then?_

**"****Every cell in my body's dying." **But _he cant, he can't die he's her Doctor._

Where had that come from?

He told her it was a Time Lord trick and in a way, his way of **'cheating death'**. He talked about changing as if he did it everyday… Caught between going to the shops to buy milk and just another adventure.

And then she knew.

She was not the only one scared.

"**It means I'm gonna change." **How much? Why? How? She couldn't get the questions out, so instead she just stood there in shock.

"**And I'm not gonna see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face."** He laughed and that just made it worse, that he was trying to make it better for her, somehow.

"**And before I go..."** _Oh God, dying._

"**Before I go, I just wanna tell you, you were fantastic."**

"**Absolutely fantastic." **Her Doctor all the way.

"**And d'you know what?" **

She shook her head.

"**So was I." **One last grin to remember him by.

And then he was gone.

* * *

"You didn't tell her about regeneration!" Five was truly appalled.

"Didn't think I needed to." Answered Nine stiffly

"Oh, so she'd just expect that, would she?" yelled Jack.

"NO! I mean, I didn't plan on dieing that soon."

"Wouldn't have changed it though." Smiled Ten sadly.

"Not for the World." Added Nine.

…………………………………………

Rose didn't like the man in the Doctors clothes. The jacket, _his jacket, _swamped his frame, he talked funny, _not fierce and defiantly, not Northern _and he just wasn't him really.

So, Rose panicked.

She couldn't understand, the man wearing the Doctor's clothes talking about moles and dogs and Barcelona. Too fast, too happy, all the time…

_And he called himself the Doctor!_

Rose suddenly remembers that Jack's wasn't there. Still very scared, with this 'Doctor' imposter trying to drive the TARDIS and doing a very poor job at it, Rose refused to believe him to be the Doctor.

He was hurting the TARDIS...

Jack, rebuilding Earth. Rose wanted to believe him, this stranger with new teeth, new hair and a mole, but she couldn't.

Because she knew her Doctor was dead.

And so was Jack.

* * *

He was the Doctor. She knew it was him.

She wouldn't be so terrified of him dying if it wasn't really him. Lying on that bed, dying for all she knew, Rose finally believed he was who had claimed to be. No one would be able to scare her like that.

He woke up in the nick of time, quoting Lion King. There was sword fighting, re-growing limbs (after having had them cut off in a battle for the planet) and saving the world with a Satsuma.

There was a moment when Rose had to stand up and defend the planet herself. Words she had, since long forgotten, spilling out of her lips. She had had offered herself wholly, brave if a bit afraid. But when the Doctor had come out of his blue box dressed in her-mothers-boyfriends PJ's, Rose had known everything would be okay.

They just laughed the whole thing off.

But there was also a moment when the Doctor was a little bit dark.

Rose didn't mind he wouldn't be her Doctor, otherwise.

He was a new man, yet still the same and the Doctor knew him well enough to guess there was something he had been holding back.

* * *

He showed her it was still him the only way he had known how, taking her to places no other man could. And she loved him for it.

But she was beginning to realise, she loved him without all that too.

Rose got herself possessed, snogged the Doctor senseless (she remembered it all).  
Then he was the one possessed, calling himself **'Foxy'…** She nearly fainted in his arms.

All in all, one of the most embarrassing and memorable days of her life.

And then, of course, Cassandra had to tell the Doctor Rose fancied him. Rose was sure, then…

It_ was_ the most embarrassing day of her life.

* * *

Rose was a little hurt when he calls heraferal child.

"…**I bought her for sixpence in old London Town. It's was her or the Elephant Man, so..." **

But that was just him being him really, nothing to worry about. It hurt, but that was always the way he was……a little bit insensitive about the little things.

Didn't matter.

Rose was sent to change into one of the mistress of the house's gowns. Too naked, she had been.

The brown one looked too plain and boring and the electric blue a little too bright, a little too much like she's trying to show people how happy she was. Attention grabbing.

After she pulled someone out of wardrobe, Rose got kidnapped, knocked out by chloroform and then chained to a wall. All in all a normal day.

Sometimes, Rose wondered, she forgot why she even fought so hard to stay out of trouble. I t seemed to follow her wherever she went.

……………………………………………………………..

"**Look! Inside your eyes! You've seen it too!"**

"**The Wolf! There is something of the Wolf about you!"**

"**You burnt like the sun, but all I require is the moon."**

The dreams of gold light and singing were just a coincidence.

The wolf couldn't possibly know.

Rose got everyone of those people out of that cellar alive. The wolf was ready to devourer them all and Rose had a hard time shaking them out of their human's natural reaction of terror… Freezing

But she never had a plan formed.

No, that was not true. She did have one, but the plan consisted basically of waiting until he came to saved her. She had trusted him that much.

* * *

It wasn't being knighted by Queen Victoria that Rose liked best about that day (although not many people can say they were knighted. Mind you, she couldn't either, because the people back home would lock her in a loony bin for even saying she had met the monarch).

It wasn't getting banned from her own country one hundred and twelve years before she was even born.

It wasn't even meeting a werewolf… though that was just…

_wow_

It was sitting in a bus shelter in Sheffield, eating chips with the Doctor.

It was listening to him ramble on about the music Rose's generation should have listened to, even if it came twenty years before and in some cases one hundred and twenty years after her 'time'.

_Funny_, Rose thought, looking out into the pouring rain from under their shelter.

Even though she was 'out of time', she has never felt happier.

Rose decided not to tell the Doctor about the moonlight dancing wolf and his taunting words.

It would only spoil the moment and Rose lived mostly of moments those days

……………………………………………………………………………….

All in all, Rose was angry. And embarrassed. And hurt.

He had never told her about Sarah Jane. So, it was safe to assume he would never talk about her after she was gone, when she 'chooses' to leave.

She should have known though. The guy has dresses in his wardrobe, for Christ Sake, and he was over nine hundred years old. But she had never asked.

Now she just felt stupid.

But it was when him and Sarah held hands, that Rose felt her heart crack and shatter a little bit. Rose couldn't help wondering what other hands he had already held in his. Was it a regular thing? Was there a club somewhere, where they had badges and jackets and slogans and self-help groups for counseling. So that past companions could cope, after he decided, for them, it was time to get on with 'life.'

Rose wondered then if he even cared that he was her whole life.

And she wondered, also, how many other people had felt the same.

* * *

The Doctor was the teacher. Rose was the dinner lady. Not that she could be a teacher, it was just……was that all he could see her as? The dinner lady?

'The assistant?'

Rose didn't like Sarah Jane.

"**I ****saw things you wouldn't believe." **

"**Try me."**

"**Mummies." **

"**I've met ghosts." **Gelth technically, but Sarah didn't need to know that.

"**R****obots. Lots of robots." **

"**Slitheen. In Downing Street." **_And I helped blow it up._**  
**

"**Daleks!" **

"**Met the Emperor." **Rosesnorted, The God of all Daleks. Dust now…

"**Anti-Matter monsters." **

"**Gas masked zombies." **She knew it was getting to be more than a joke.

"**Real living dinosaurs!"**

"**Real living werewolf!" **_Beat that……_

"_**The Loch Ness Monster!" **_

"**... Seriously?" **Rose didn't know if she believed that.

By the end, Rose hated her, because she knew, that in a few years time, she could end up being her.

Sarah Jane Smith was Rose Tyler's worst nightmare.

"**I don't age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone who you—"**

Was he gonna say it? No idea, but maybe he did……

He wouldn't leave her, she was different.

He would never leave her.

Rose wanted to believe that above all else.

* * *

Rose sat on her bed in the TARDIS. She was shaking slightly and looked sort of….wrong.

Suddenly, she knew what she needed and frantically pulled out her bedside table drawers until she could find what she was looking for. Make-up and old magazines flew everywhere and still, it was no where in sight.

She ran around her bed to get to the next set and started to frantically pull out those drawers too.

She found it.

Once, a long time ago, Mickey had come all the way to Cardiff with her passport. The Doctor didn't understand, had claimed it was pointless. But Rose had also asked for something else.

Her name badge.

It was strange, she had never worn it at the shop and had no real idea why she had asked Mickey to bring it. A reminder maybe, of life back home? A constant reassurance that it would always be there? Or was it of how far she'd come?

All assistants where meant to wear them at all times in order for the customers to be able to associate with them better. Or so the company had said.

The Store manager didn't care, so he had never enforced it.

They (Rose and the other assistants) only wore them when the boss came to visit, which wasn't very often.

There was a soft knock at the door. It wasn't the Doctor, but that was ok. She didn't think he'd come to her room anyway. Why would he?

It was Mickey, confused. He didn't understand. He had realised earlier that the Doctor needed time to himself. Now, the Doctor needed to talk to Rose.

Shame only Mickey could see that.

"**This is it, this is really it. This is what happens, ainet?"** Good way to get Rose to talk was to get her angry. Then she just yelled out without thinking. If getting her like that got her to talk, then that was what Mickey would do.

Because God knows, the Doctor wasn't going to do it.

"**I mean, I thought Sarah Jane had a rough deal, but at least she got earth. Her own century even. He just left us Rose, doesn't that mean anything too you?"**

"**He came back."** Like that really mattered.

"**Didn't think he could, though, did he? Didn't plan to." **

"**What do you want me to say Mickey?"** It was not working.

"**Do you think he will do it again? How long before he leaves you Rose? How long?!!"** He was determined to get her to talk, to yell, to scream and shout. But wouldn't.

"**I don't know…and I don't care."** Rose's breathing shook, but she didn't cry. Mickey was getting worried.

"**Don't care?!"** Mickey struggled to think of something to say. He sputtered… **"Rose, he left you for five and a half hours, with no intention of getting back, for a French Prostitute!-"**

"**No!"** First strong reaction he had from her in ages. Mickey looked up, startled.

"**He left me for five and a half hours to save someone he cared about, maybe even loved…and that, that's great. Really, it's brilliant."** A tear rolled down her face. Rose wasn't feeling that_**brilliant**_

"**I'm so happy he met someone, and she was nice…she… she was a really nice person. And I'm sorry… I'm sorry something went wrong-"** she hiccupped and then sniffed loudly. **"I'm just…..well, surprised really."**

Mickey shuts his eyes_**Surprised**_ wasn't the word that came to his mind. Distraught was properly nearer to it.

"**See…he said that humans die, which yeah ok…believe him there."** She tries to laugh, but it just hurt**. "And I thought that was why he didn't want to be with me…like that."**

That got Mickey's attention.

"**But it's not that, cos'-" **Rose clenched her fists tightly.

"**She was human too." **

"**Its not that he doesn't want to be with a human,"**

"**It's that he doesn't want to be with me."**

Then, she really did laugh.

Cold and harsh and so very alien to her, that Mickey worried, **"God, I really thought he did!"**

And then she was crying, inconsolable. Mickey just stood there.

_And the Doctor? _

God only knew where he was.

"**And I can't-"** She took a deep breath and almost choked, **"I can't be happy for him! How sick is that! You're right Mick… I do, I love him. I love him so much that I'd rather have him be miserable with me, then happy with someone else."**

"**Rose, talk to him, tell how you feel."** But she was shaking her head before he even got to the end of his sentence.

"**No...no...it's me being stupid. God no…he already thinks I'm an idiot. I'm not going to prove it to him. He can do what he likes, don't know why I'm like this now…was only a matter of time."**

"**Big ears wouldn't have done it."** Mickey added snidely. Couldn't help himself.

Rose shut her eyes and ignored the comment. In her mind, she wondered if Madame Du Pompadour would have even looked at him then, when he had looked like that.

What she allowed herself to say, though, is far more civilised, and she almost believed it herself.

"**Same man. Yeah, he would."**

But now she got to thinking… Would he? Would he have left her like that? Would he have looked twice at that other woman if he had been his old self? Her Doctor?

Because he was not 'her Doctor'…not anymore.

He was Reinette's.

Or maybe he never was.

Rose wasn't going to say anything else, though.

Mickey turned to leave.

"**Oh I er****…found it."** He pulled Rose's TARDIS key out of his jeans pocket and chucked it on the bed near her.

"**Kitchen table, would you believe."** The silence, between the two old friends was deafening. **"You better have it back."** He added unnecessarily.

"**Ok, we'll just be more careful next time."** Rose stared down at it. **"Emergency programme one."** She breathed with the first real smile Mickey had seen in a while

"**For the next time he leaves you, yeah?"** Mickey couldn't understand why she would let herself get hurt like this.

"**Yeah."** Rose challenged him defiantly.

Mickey shook his head as he left.

"**You don't like it, you don't have to stay."** She yelled at his retreating back.

Rose picked up the key from the bed.

Suddenly there was a sharp pain in her other hand. It was the badge, the pin broken and stuck in her palm. The sad girl pulled it off, looking at the lettering.

_Shop Assistant _

_Rose_

Rose looked at the TARDIS key in one hand and covered the word '_Shop' _up.

She wondered of all the others who held this very key, how many 'Companions'. She used to think that was special, to him and her. Now it was just a brand name.

_Is it the same key? Or does he have a new one cut each time?_

'_Assistant Rose'_

_Is that all she was?_

The Doctor liked to travel with lots of people at one time.

Mickey said Sarah Jane called it 'an entourage'

She leant Mickey the key to stop him from feeling like 'the tin dog'.

But what did that make her?

The Doctor called her 'the best' once.

Now she wonders who else he's said that too.

Feeling the weight of her sadness, Rose let herself cry openly.

Nine was being very calm. His breathing through his abnormally large nose, which, under normal circumstances, would call Jack to crack a joke.

This wasn't 'normal circumstances'.

Next, he started turning a strange shade of red, arms crossed over his chest, like he was trying to protect himself…stop himself.

He was trying to stop himself, but when Ten started to speak, he knew it was a lost cause.

The Ninth Doctor took one good swing at Number Ten. As his skinnier version fell to the floor with a satisfying thud, he realized he was glad he didn't stop himself.

Ten choked slightly, but didn't try to get up. He just stared at the floor, blood dribbling from his nose. There was a thundering crash that echoed all around them.

Nine was aware things were far from over.

* * *

Sorry for the wait folks.

Right then:

Talia-Taylor

Thanks for the review, but the story is very much already written in my head. Your ideas are similar to mine and I appreciate the help, but one tip:

Wait and see……..

One more chapter then we find out what Rose was doing in the other universes (dun dun duhhh!!!!).

Hoped you liked the chapter and want to carry on reading.

Thanks

TeggieLady


	14. Chapter 14

Never Ever

By TeggieLady

_Previously…_

_The Ninth Doctor took one good swing at Number Ten. As his skinnier version fell to the floor with a satisfying thud, he realized he was glad he didn't stop himself._

_Ten choked slightly, but didn't try to get up. He just stared at the floor, blood dribbling from his nose. There was a thundering crash that echoed all around them._

_Nine was aware things were far from over._

_Now…_

Ten got to his feet, shaking.

"Look, I didn't know…I was just…I really didn't know."

Nine raised his eyebrows and looked disbelievingly at himself.

"I thought that she understood, that there was no other way, not enough time to….I had to go… had to leave her. I didn't want to, but I didn't have a choice."

Nine was shaking his head before Ten had even finished trying to excuse himself for what Nine saw as a cowardly crime.

"Not that, she knew about that. What escapes me is why you thought it was ok to not talk to her about it? To let her think that you would just drop her for the slightest thing." His ears were growing red, his arms crossed, and his voice had turned into a growl.

"I talked to her about it, just after Sarah Jane, you heard me! I talked about it."

"Yes…..but twenty four hours after promising you would never leave her… you left her!!"

"I needed to save Reinette to preserve history." Ten wiped his nose with the back of his sleeve and was surprised to find blood there.

"And Rose understood that. She didn't like it, but she understood it." Nine nodded his head sharply in a mock of agreement.

"But now, she doesn't trust you. She doesn't trust me. She thinks that any second now you're just going to leave her, abandon her for the stupidest reasons. For the next pretty face that comes along! She's terrified. You've made Rose Tyler terrified. Now she thinks she doesn't mean anything to me, to us, that we don't care about her. She thinks I never cared about her."

Ten fought the urge to look at the floor; he looked Nine in the eyes instead.

"I really didn't know she felt that way." The latest Doctor breathed. "But you're the one that threatened to leave her."

"WHEN!?!" Nine was livid. He stormed purposely towards his older self, only to have his younger self hold him back.

"This isn't the way to settle things, lets just calm down and try to talk it out-" Five's voice of reason was drowned out.

"When you took her to see her Dad, you took her key and walked out, threatened to leave her in the nineteen eighties." Yelled Ten over Five, who standing his ground.

"Yes, 'threatened'… I wasn't actually going to do it. She called my bluff, she knew I wouldn't. Now she thinks I would. And that I was just waiting for an excuse to leave her behind." The Doctor couldn't believe it. Rose doubted him… she would risk her life everyday, traveling with him to the end of the world, but, at the same time, she had been petrified that he would suddenly abandon her.

"I didn't have a choice, I didn't know she wanted to talk, I would have stayed with her if I could, but I couldn't because… it just wouldn't-"

"You meant everything to her, we meant everything to her. She meant everything to us and you left her. Didn't even check she could get in the TARDIS to get home. No goodbye… you just left. Not before she met the woman you'd leave her for, of course. That was insensitive, even for us."

Ten finally dropped his eyes.

"You left her, thousands of years from home with no way of getting back. In a spaceship with only Mickey, the idiot for company and cut up human body parts. You hurt her, badly. For a French Prostitute."

Ten tried to argue back, but Nine cut over him.

"Who you never really loved, not like that."

An uncomfortable silence gained control of the room. You could the tension, it was so deep.

"That noise." Martha changed the subject fast. "What was it? That sort of crash?"

"The tape stopped. What Miss Tyler's memories are on, it was paused, so the connection broke. I believe the other Doctor must have done it. It's no longer recording what we see, but we're still stuck here." Explained Number Five, still standing between the other two Doctors.

"So, it will stop soon, yeah?" asked Jack, unnaturally calm. "Before her memories are up to date, it will stop." As Jack spoke, his eyes didn't falter from the Tenth Doctor's face.

Feeling the intense scrutiny, Ten looked up and caught Jack's gaze.

"Yes, soon it will stop." Answered number Five, seeing the silent duel easily.

* * *

Rose walked into the kitchen the next day. She made toast, found the jam and then made a pot of tea. As the kettle boiled, she caught her reflection on the shiny surface.

A few days ago Rose had taken hours to get ready. She'd woken earlier just to crimp and curl her hair, confident that she would get him to see her differently. Ever since he'd changed, Rose had tried something different. To get everything just right. He didn't call her a **'stupid ape'** anymore. Something must have changed.

Now, she was in her old tea stained pajamas; wore no makeup and needed to wash her hair.

It wasn't like he would notice anyway, he never said anything about her hair and even if he did, it wasn't as if it had ever crossed his mind to think of her like that anyway.

They joked and laughed and Rose spent her day's efforts trying to not get herself noticed, but trying to get things back to normal at the same time. The Doctor didn't have to try, of course, why would he? Everything was **'Alright'**.

It was always **'Alright'** .

_Right…_

* * *

The next day they want to a Parallel Universe.

Rose met her Dad and her Mum. Or at least, what her Mum would have been like if she'd had money and a dog instead of a daughter.

The Doctor found it very funny meeting Rose Tyler, the Yorkshire terrier. It was becoming a habit of hers, meeting her replacements.

If Madam Du Pompadour had come aboard, would Rose have been that? Not even the tin dog, but the Yorkshire terrier?

Her 'Mum' died. They ripped out her brain and put it inside something else. Something cold and dark and alien.

This universe was wrong.

It had strange blue traffic lights, an English President, Cybus Industries and everything that Mickey ever wanted for his life.

And when he told her he was staying behind, Rose knew it was all her fault.

That world needed him, more than she ever did.

"**What about me? What if **_**I **_**need you?" **

"**Yeah, but Rose... you don't. It's just you and him, isn't it?" **

She had driven him away.

Now he didn't even want to see her again.

But her Dad, her real Dad, what would he have thought of her now? This Universe's version didn't want her, so why would the other one?

Rose was feeling her world falling apart… Not by fire like her Doctor had shown her, but in silence.

Mickey got as far away from her as possible. He got on with his life when she thought he would just stay the same. And one day, when the Doctor did leave her, she would go back to the estate (not 'home', hasn't been that for a long time). Would it still be there, though?

She had always thought it would remain the same. A fixed mark she could return to, one day.

But it won't be, because now Mickey was not there anymore.

'_Home'_ wasn't there either.

* * *

The Doctor took her home. And it was just in time for her twenty first.

When she had been nineteen, before she meting the Doctor, Rose used to talk to her friends about her twenty first. It would be a huge party, brand new dress from that expensive shop in the high street and a night she would drink into oblivion.

Her friends couldn't make it, though. The Doctor said he would be happy to spend the night working on the TARDIS while she went out, but she didn't have anyone to go out with. Not anymore.

There used to be this big gang of them, but the few who forgave her after she turned up a year later from being 'dead' were 'busy'. The rest didn't care.

Some were married, some had an 'early start' in the morning, some had moved away. And some just didn't want to know.

Her Mums already made plans. She didn't think Rose would be there and is still dating that Howard bloke from Christmas. She offered to cancel, but Rose said she had something planned, already.

The Doctor gave Rose his universal credit card, so she spent the day shopping, on her own. She told her Mum and the Doctor she went with an old friend from work.

She didn't.

Rose's twenty first birthday, so far, turned out to be pretty bad, until the Doctor sat down with her and they watched an old French chick flick that Rose could never pronounce. The Doctor couldn't stop talking and had her in fits of giggles for the really emotional tragic parts of the film.

As the credits rolled, Rose knew. It was worth it. Everyone she'd ever cared about had eventually abandoned her, but it was still worth it. Because she had him, even if it is only for a little while. It won't matter how long…

Besides, she abandoned everyone first.

Even if it had taken her a while to notice.

* * *

They went to the nineteen fifties.

They had been aiming for the nineteen sixties, but never mind.

The Doctor also aimed for New York instead of London, but that was just part of the fun. Never really knowing where they would end up. Rose was in such a good mood that she opened the TARDIS door first and waited for the Doctor, still inside. It was the first time she did so since she had met Sarah Jane. She was almost unafraid.

It was fun, a truly brilliant day.

Ok, so she got her face sucked off by a nineteen fifties television, but these things happen. And as Tommy's dad proved…

_No one was __perfect. _

Not even the Doctor. He will leave her, but while it lasts she won't miss it for the world. She always knew he wasn't perfect, anyway, she was never that naïve.

But really, leaving her…it would be the worst thing that could happen.

* * *

So she pushed such thoughts from her mind.

The Doctor died.

Rose was wrong, that was the worst thing to happen.

She understood and acted on his cryptic massage, when Torchwood trained professionals had given up. Had just barely gotten most of them out to safety and for what?

So she can be stuck in a universe that didn't have the Doctor?

Rose Tyler decided to stay behind.

He wouldn't leave her, not to die alone, so she wasn't leaving him, either. The planet was in danger and so was everyone on it. But if he was hurt or dead or dying or regenerating and needed her help and she left?

She would never forgive herself.

They drugged her, though.

Took her choice away.

Rose had been drugged more times then she could remember but never to save her own life. And she really hated it. For one wild moment she had a gun in her hands. No intention of using it… never could, really, but if it forced them to take her back, she wouldn't even have to use it.

It didn't work and they didn't turn back.

She felt defeated.

Then Hell broke loose. Literally.

The gravity collapsed.

"**And the lost girl,****so far away from home."**

Toby, next her, screamed and laughed as the rocket almost lost control.

Rose was going to die.

"**The valiant child who will die in battle so very soon."**

But not now. Not like this.

Rose picked up the bolt gun and pointed it at the front window.

"**Go to Hell."**

She had lost everything, but she wouldn't let him win. Whatever _**it**_ was called

Rose pulled off the 'Devil's' seatbelt and watched it being sucked through the broken window, into the black hole.

The Doctor was alive, in the end.

"**He's gone."**

He will leave her in the end, but at least it won't be because he's dead.

"**He said your name..."**

She couldn't cope if he was dead.

* * *

Her Mums was getting on with her life.

Ok, so she got herself a 'friend' who was old enough to be her son, but if it made her happy, so be it.

Even if he ended up dating a piece of concrete.

Rose couldn't talk; she was in love with a two hearted, body changing telepathic, blabbermouth alien.

_Never mind._

But her mums moved on. Rose didn't know about Elton until it was too late because her mum never told her. Her mums was moving on just like Mickey.

Mother's shouldn't leave, though

She could leave her Mum, but her Mum couldn't leave her, that wasn't right.

They went to Olympics.

It was a brilliant day, with ball bearing, fire works and no one dying.

Everybody lived.

But, by the end of this adventure, Rose considered that someone had, or would.

Her.

A storm was coming after all.

"**You know what; they keep on trying to split us up, but they never ever will."**

To split them up.

"**Never say never ever."**

Because that was just tempting fate.

And Fate didn't particularly resist well to temptation.

* * *

They went to Torchwood.

Like Bad Wolf, it had appeared one too many times in their travels for it to mean nothing.

Rose broke into the sphere room using the Doctors physic paper, then got herself arrested. Nothing new there, but she tried.

Seeing Mickey again brought a feeling of foreboding in the pit of her stomach.

Then the sphere opened and Rose thought the time had finally come…

Rose kept herself and Mickey alive by seeming useful to the Daleks without actually telling them anything. She learned that with the doctor, the alien she was waiting for. The one who would rescue them all.

Then she saw him.

"**The female's heartbeat has increased." **

"**Yeah, tell me about it." **Mickey didn't sound bitter only amused that even a Dalek would notice.

"**Identify him." **Cold and harsh and cruel. She was going to enjoy this.

"**All right then... if you **_**really **_**wanna**** know... that's the Doctor." **

The Daleks roll back. In shock? Fear? _Oh you better be afraid._

"**Five million ****Cybermen**** - easy. ****One Doctor?**_**Now**_** you're scared."**

Her brilliant, fantastic, wonderful Doctor would get her out. He always did.

"**You're the bravest man I've ever met."**

"**What about the Doctor?"**

"**Oh, all right. ****Bravest Human."**

And no one else came close.

* * *

They were going to kill her… And, well, it was never in her to die quietly.

"**If you um... escaped the Time War... don't you want to know what happened?"**

"**Place your hand--" **_Needed a reaction, any reaction. Just a little bit longer_.

"**What happened to the Emperor?" **

"**The Emperor survived."** Dalek Sek was hopeful and in that moment Rose knew.

The dreams of bright light and beautiful singing, high pitch Dalek screams and a woman in the woods with her back to Rose that had been haunting her for months… They finally made sense.

She remembered what happened on satellite Five and a very dangerous idea that will get her killed pops within her mind.

**  
"****'Til he met me... 'cos if these are gonna be my last words, then you're gonna listen; I met the Emperor. And I took the Time Vortex and I pulled it into his head and turned him into dust. Do you get that? The God of all Daleks... and I destroyed him." **

She was going to die, but she was going to do it laughing, with a wide smile on her lips.

"**You will be **_**exterminated!"**__ Well duh. _

"**Oh now, hold on, wait a minute."**

He would never abandon her.

_Not really._

He made jokes, just after telling her she had to go.

That was what he did when the world was falling apart. He made jokes.

Rose was aware that, if the Void closed, she would be stuck there, without a way back. He avoided talking about it.

Pete didn't understand. He never did. Her Dad would have, but this man didn't. He really thought she would go, so did the Doctor, for that matter. The idea would be laughable if it hadn't been so terrifying.

Her Mum wanted to either stay in that world with Rose or the other world with Rose. Rose just wanted to stay with the Doctor. Whatever that was.

"**I've had a life with you for nineteen years. But then I met the Doctor and... all the things I've seen him do for me. For you. For all of us. For the whole... **_**stupid **_**planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, mum." **

Because he was always on his own. Everyone left him and in the moment a choice presented itself, Rose chose not to. She wouldn't last forever, but she would stay by his side for as long as she did last.**  
**

"**But not anymore." **

Rose started to walk away slowly from her mother.

**  
"****Cos**** now he's got me."** For _as long as he'll have me, he's got me._

Suddenly, she felt the cool chain of the yellow button teleporter around her neck and realised too late what the Doctor had done. _Stubborn man…_

"**What're you--?" **she tried to think of a different word rather than betrayal.

She was in the other world before she could finish her sentence and she didn't like it.

"**Oh no you don't. He's not doing that to me again." **

She had come back then too and as soon as this was over, she was going to sit him down for a serious talk. No matter how uncomfortable it might be, she had to know the truth.

_She pressed the button. _

"**I think this is the 'on' switch..."**

The Doctor grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her straight in the eye.

"**Once the breach collapses, that's **_**it. **_**You will never be able to see her again. Your own mother!" **There was always a price, a decision. He was talking to her like she still had to make one.

"**I made my choice a long time ago, and I'm never ****gonna**** leave you." **

_Never._

He was back to laughing and joking and Rose dared think they might live through this. Then she remembered that he had always been like this when he was worried out of his mind.

* * *

"**The breach is open! Into the Void! Ha!" **

They were winning.

It was working and they were really winning.

And then the lever from Rose's side sparked due to overheating. It moved closer to the 'off' position and Rose could see her life fall apart with it.

"**Offline."**

It was shutting down; the computer didn't need to tell her that, the whole thing was losing power before it had done its job right.

She reached for the lever, but it was just ever so slightly out of reach; her arm still holding on to the grip on the wall. She couldn't hold onto both, so she made her choice, fully conscious of the consequences and grabs onto the lever, pulling it back up.

The contraption becomes active again and the force pulling her is just too strong. She was holding on with all her might.

"**Online and locked." **

The Void was pulling her in, Five million Cybermen flying past here along with over a billion Daleks. She was going with them. Into Hell.

She lost her grip suddenly; the void rushed forward. Rose felt like it was all in slow motion, though. Nearby, she thought she heard the Doctor screaming her name. But it wa no use, she fell. Faster and faster she was going to go fall into Hell.

This was the end.

_Too soon._

And then it stopped, everything stopped. Parallel Pete Tyler had saved her life. But not her heart. There was no way back from that world. He had saved her and as Rose took one last look at her Doctor, she knew.

Whatever happened now, whatever she would have to do or give… She would.

For just five more minutes with him.

They were in the other Universe and it was too loud, too quiet, too bright, too dark. Her worst nightmare come true. A world without the Doctor.

This world was wrong.

"**Take me back! Take me back!" **She repeated herself, she realized. It was the same words she had spoken over a year ago. This time, though, there really was no way back, no TARDIS, no _Bad Wolf._

No hope, no way home.

She had been in hysterics then too.

Breaking down into tears of raw grief, while her fists slammed hard against the wall, Rose saw nothing else. Because there wasn't anything else. There really wasn't.

**  
"****Take me back..." **

She vaguely heard Pete say something about the breach being fully closed. But that couldn't be true. The Doctor would find a way back, he had to.

There was no impossible were the Doctor was concerned.

"**No..."**

That one word repeated in her mind over and over again.

"**No…"**

_Agony and nothing more._

* * *

When she got the five minutes she had been willing to sacrifice anything for, it wasn't enough time. It would never have been enough time, she realized.

"**I'm burning up a sun just to say goodbye." **

He was an image and it really was too much like before. A recorded message, a wish for the future.

"**We're in Norway." **

"**Norway. Right." **

"**About fifty miles out of Burgen. It's called 'Dårlig Ulv Stranden'." **

"**Dalek?" **

"**Dårl****ig****. It's Norwegian for 'bad'. This translates as 'Bad Wolf Bay'."**

It seemed that, when you were down and miserable, the Parallel Universes would work together tirelessly to make you feel so much worse.

She could almost hear the cry of disappointment when she told him she was working in a shop. She was never doing that again, but it was nice to think he expected so much more from her. That he knew without a doubt she could do better.

"**Shut up. No, I'm not. There's still a Torchwood on this planet, it's open for business. I think I know a thing or two about aliens." **

**  
"****Rose Tyler. Defender of the Earth." **She had never felt so proud for his pride.

"**Am I ever gonna see you again?" **Oh God, she's crying. She swore she wouldn't cry, knowing it would just make things harder.

"**You can't."** She knew that, but did he have to say it out loud? She would have waited for him. What she promised him she would never do, she would wait forever. If only the possibility lingered…

"**I lo—"** She had to tell him, otherwise she never would be able to. It didn't matter if the words weren't reciprocated.

"**I love you." **So _much, so very very much._

Because, if there was one thing Rose Tyler was absolutely certain in that moment, it was of her love for him. In spite of everything. Because of everything…

"**Quite right, too." **The comment was so much like him, it just hurt.

"**And I suppose... if it's one last chance to say it..."** Was he having regrets like her? Because they never said or did what they wanted, did he feel the same?

He looked her in the eye. Those beautiful brown, or blue eyes, she doesn't care what colour.

No matter what, he's still _Her_ Doctor.

"**Rose Tyler..."**

And then he was gone. Really gone. Unfinished sentences and things that still desperately needed to be said lost in the silence.

Never to be spoken of again.

Rose burst into fresh tears. She had a Mum, a Dad, her best friend and a brother or sister on the way. She had a nice house and for the first time in her life, a real future ahead of her.

And all she wanted was him.

All she ever wanted was him.

She wasn't going to see him again, though.

_Never Ever._

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Sorry for the delay but I went away for the week.

Right hands up if you saw V of the D with Kylie?

Now I'm not one to cough out names like 'Rose' but don't you think R T D had someone in mind when he wrote that ep?

I need to watch it again as my aunt walked in, talked all the way through and started slagged it off at the end. Ok so it wasn't the best ep in the world but it is Doctor who so…stand and salute no matter what.

Anyway

Thanks for the reviews, please carry on reading and, too late to wish you a happy Christmas but how about a merry new year instead?

Next chapter we find out what happened to Rose in the other universe.


	15. Chapter 15

**Time Up**

**By TeggieLady**

_Previously…_

_And then he was gone. Really gone._

_Now…_

It was violent.

Harsh and cold and cruel and oh so very very violent how they were finally torn apart. Their last meeting should have been one of solace, not a time for unanswered questions to rear their ugly heads.

Martha Jones stared in shock. Together they had seemed unbeatable, Rose had certainly thought (or acted like) they were. And now…

Martha still didn't like Rose. But no one deserved that, so close and so far away. To win battles with monsters and Devils and robots, only to be beaten by a dodgy leaver.

Doctor Jones turned to look at the distorted faces of her companions. Five had his face down in a mark of respect for the brave woman, who was now shaking with tears on the beach. Jack shook his head slightly, unable to believe it was true and at the same time looking as though he wanted to grab, to her keep her safe, to shield her away from any pain or danger and never let her go. Nine and Ten were (for the first and only time) showing similarities. Almost identical expressions of grief distress etched on their faces, four hearts were breaking.

They had both been expecting it, Ten more than Nine, but, Rose Tyler's departure proved to be all too much.

A high pitched beep echoed all around them.

Time's up.

* * *

It was strange really, how one conversation can change two years of opinions and thoughts.

For instance, Rose thought he would never see her like that. Now she would spend the rest of her life wondering if he did. Or didn't he understand? She said she loved him, maybe he thought she meant as a friend and so was telling her that he loved her too.

As a friend.

Or maybe he knew. Had always known and had never really wanted to face up to that fact, knowing it would change everything. Knowing the horrendous conversation in which she would confess her love and he would reply one of the commonly used catchphrases, "let's just be friends", "you're not my type" or "why would I wanna be with you?"

Yet the Doctor was nothing but original so maybe he would change the subject to prevent further embarrassment. Or cut the lines of communication so he wouldn't have to lie to her. At the same time let her feel like he did, love her like she loved him.

Rose would never really know.

A high pitch noise echoed along the beach and Rose knew her time was running out.

What was she to do now? How did someone simply 'get on with their life' when the very thing that was their life had been ripped away from them?

The noise reminded her of her alarm clock she used to set for school and then work. Was that to be her life now? Once again, work, sleep, eat (day in day out) all day long, every day until she died?

It had been before, but never again.

Mickey pressed a button on his stop watch/wrist watch Torchwood issued gadget. The noise cessed. He walked slowly toward Rose who was further down the beach, watching the cold November ocean.

Rose Tyler was remembering a time when she laughed under the high fierce but silent and still waves of another ocean in a far off place. Now she cried next to an ordinary one that crashed along the sand.

She felt Mickey's presence behind her; felt his hand almost take hers but at the last minute deciding against it; felt his hand finally on her elbow.

"**Rose that's it…" **Mickey said quietly.** "That's five and a half hours."**

"**Time to go home."**

Rose really wished she knew where that was.

* * *

One month and three days had passed.

Rose did really well on Christmas day.

She opened presents, smiled and laughed and to those who didn't know her, she was _**"Alright".**_

It was only during Christmas pudding that Pete made an insensitive, while oblivious, comment about hoping "it would snow" that Rose broke down and cried.

* * *

Two and a half months passed.

Rose Tyler had something she never really thought she'd ever have, even before Hendricks was blown up. She had a future to look forward to and for once, it wasn't written in stone.

In six months she would get her A-level results. With them she would get into night school to get a degree (she wasn't sure in what, she just liked the sound of it) and then she would be a fully qualified Torchwood field agent.

Of course, she was already on the fast track system, with her being a "Tyler" and all. The one who grew up in a boarding school in a place Rose has never heard of and no one has ever been to.

Didn't matter.

Rose trained at the army organised 'Torchwood league of excellence centre' at nights and most weekends. If she carried on what she was doing she would be a fully qualified agent at twenty five. Her mum insisted she was working herself to death, but couldn't argue with her daughter when Rose told she more than welcomed the distraction.

Jackie, of all people, understood.

* * *

Thursday 23rd June was the date of Rose's first mission.

It wasn't on her own. Every grade 3 (like Rose, a middle grade in the Torchwood scheme) hit the streets of London with her that day. Their objective? Detect a Mr R. Emmyers. Or try to, at least. The man had last been seen 30 miles away from London and that had been a month before. There wasn't a man, or woman, on the base who thought he would ever turn up anywhere near the city again.

But it showed they could follow orders and gave them a chance to train their survival skills. Even if it was a pointless, fruitless exercise, after all.

R. Emmyers wasn't his real name, of course. Nobody said his real name, as it was too unpronounceable to any human language to wrap their tongues around. So, they just called him R. Emmyers, because of the sound he made. No words of any recognisable language, just one growl like sound.

Looking at him you wouldn't know he was alien. Or dangerous. But he was. Unfortunately, it was only when you saw the sniper ireful in his hands that you would know he was capable of killing. More than one hundred and fifty people gunned down attested to that.

Rose's partner was pissed. She had broken up with her boyfriend the night before and was still rat assed on anything she could find in any of the nearest off-licences. Determined not to lose her chance to be an agent, Rose decided to go out on her own. The team of twenty nine had split up and no one noticed Rose had no partner.

Rose gave her best shot and, by one fifty five, was really tired and ready to call it a night. She walked quietly through the alley near the old Powell Estates, or at least where they had been. Now, abandoned, the silent building was ready to be knocked down and turned into a science museum… some time next year.

Then Rose heard a noise behind her, a short sharp-clicking noise. Quietly, the agent in training reached into the back of her trousers waistband and pulled out her standard issued Torchwood handgun…

And let loose a curse when a drunken pack of women walked by her, oblivious to her presence. The women's laughter (more of a cackle really) echoed along the otherwise empty street as they vanished from sight.

Rose sighed and continued walking, deciding on the long route back to the centre. It would give her enough time to calm down. Two blocks away from the Estates a loud bang erupted behind her, sure sign of a gun going off.

She gasped when she felt the bulled hit the back of her neck, dropping to her knees. It had happened so fast that the blond woman had had no time to turn around… Or breathe before a second bullet hit her again from behind. This time, Rose felt it piecing her lung and all further attempts to breathe were destined to fail.

Still, Rose fought for breath as she tried to spit out the blood flooding her lungs and mouth. But the red pool before only got bigger and breath continued to elude her

And that had been it, the end of her life, at a street corner, at two in the morning… Alone. Rose was merely two blocks away from where she had considered home at one time, but Rose was a whole universe away from where home really was.

As Rose allowed her tired lids to finally close, images of bright gold light invaded her self imposed darkness. Words and phrases she had long since forgotten echoed softly in her ears.

**  
**_**"**__**I looked into the TARDIS. And the TARDIS looked into me."**_

So bright and burning and beautiful.

"_**This is the abomination!"**_

If she had been wrong and a Dalek right, She had rather been wrong.

"_**I am the Bad Wolf."**_

Control over everything. Sight over all. She was all that there could be.

A God.

"_**I kinda figured that."**_But Jack, Jack was dead. Died fighting; died saving the world. But the world shouldn't need saving. Not like that. Not at that cost.

So she changed it._  
_

"_**Everything dies."**_Worlds and planets, places and things die, but not people. She was the Bad Wolf, but only for that single moment and one day she would have to die too.

"_**The Time War ends."**_But the Doctor would still be alone.

"_**Just let go."**_He never had to be alone again, though.

"_**How can I let go of this? I bring life**_**..." **Somewhere not too far away, Jack took his first breath of his new life; no death would be permanent. Not while the Doctor had to be alone.

Heroes didn't die. Not when the Bad Wolf could save them.

"_**The power's gonna kill you and it's **__**my **__**fault."**_He was blaming himself; he shouldn't do that. Her Doctor and she would leave him too one day. She didn't want to though…

Not alone, never alone.

"_**My head..."**_But she couldn't see or think straight; Rose was dying.

"_**Come here…"**_He couldn't save her, no one could. Unless…..

"_**... it's killing me ..."**_at least I was not killing him.

"_**I think you need a Doctor."**_And he kissed her. Strange really, she'd been waiting to for so long that, when he chose to do it, it was only because she had been dying.

It maybe have been the kiss of death, but it was beautiful. Gold and bright, the first and last.

He took the Vortex from her, killing himself, or that particular body at least, in the process. And Rose knew, in that instant before all became darkness, no matter what, that he shouldn't be alone. Not anymore.

The memories faded to nothing and Rose succumbed to death.

She was only twenty three.

Ten seconds later, however, life rushed back into her body. Rose came back from the dead, as she would do a lot in the following years.

Rose Tyler cursed Suzie Costello for ever having a boyfriend in the first place.

* * *

Rose banged on Mickey's front door and pushed past him, not caring about the time or his attire. However, Rose had taken the time to cover herself up with a long coat she'd kept in her car. The last thing she needed was Mickey screaming the place down at the sight of the blood on her clothes.

"**He's alive"**

"**Who?"**

"**Jack"**

"**Jack? You mean Captain Jack Flash of the Interlude squad?"**

Five minutes later found the old friends sitting side by side on Mickey's sofa. His wife Katie was away for the week at her mother's to introduce their two week old daughter to her Grandmother. It sometimes made Rose laugh. The Universe could be so kind to some people, giving them what they always wanted, yet so cruel to others, taking away the only thing they could ever want. She'd laugh not to cry…

"**But Rose, how? You can't just bring people back from the dead."**

"**I did. In a flash of light and singing I brought him back and now he can't die, he's just like me."**

"**But how? How did this happen?"**

"**I don't know ok!!" **Rose yelled back.** "I just don't know. One minute I was with you the next I was lit up like bloody Tinkerbelle."**

She told Mickey everything. Everything she knew about the Vortex and the Bad Wolf. But she couldn't tell him why the Doctor had never mentioned that himself. Maybe he didn't know? Rose had to wonder…

"**But, what if he's lost? I mean we left him, didn't we. Me and the Doctor, we left him all on his own. Empty spaceship full of dead bodies and he stayed there for God knows how long. We know what that's like, don't we, Mick? And he can't die either, so he's like me. He's alone and he can't die and it's all my fault and we left him there all on his own." **Rose was sobbing.

"**The Doctor will find him. Eventually, he will find him and then, maybe the Doctor will find a cure, just like we will for you."**

"**It's a big universe Mickey."**

"**Never mind that, they will. Eventually, they will find each other. Hey! They could even go back to travelling to together." **Mickey smiled and Rose attempted to return the sentiment. No luck.

"**Yeah, yeah. That would be great, 'cos then he wouldn't be on his own, him or Jack and the Doctor will be with someone with a similar life span who won't die… and they wouldn't be alone ever again. Because they've got each other. He won't be alone, he can't be on his own and neither can Jack." **Sigh**. "I miss him, Mickey, I miss him so much."**

It was only after Rose stops crying that she realised Mickey was crying too.

* * *

Mickey and Rose's next destination was Torchwood London, the next day.

They used the whole of the science lab, putting it all under grade one use only. Few had access and only the most trusted people were allowed to even look at Rose.

They recorded it all on a disc. Next, they flew to Norway, this Universe's home of the rift. Cardiff was the Rift's hot spot in the other Universe, but was calm and unimportant in her new home.

Rose couldn't help the sad smile at that thought. Norway never had a Charles Dickens rediscovering life or a man in black leather with a blond girl somewhere in it's past.

* * *

Rose Tyler was twenty-eight.

With her sharpened weapon to the most of its capability to be sharp, Rose took aim. Then, with well-practiced and perfect precision, she lunged it at the helpless victim.

The yellow pencil pierced through the ball of blue tack.

Rose looked at her watch and sighed. Five more minutes before she could go home.

Once home, she starts to make beans on toast. She'd have picked up Chinese, but Rose would be having that tomorrow, with her friends. She couldn't stand them really, too confident in their belief that everything would turn out ok in the end.; that one day they would have what they wanted. Rose could barely remember anymore what that was like for herself.

There was something she wanted to watch on the telly, so lots of rushing around.

She opened the door to her newly decorated kitchen; her mum had the best designers flown in from all over the world. It was nice. Didn't feel quite right, but it was nice. She put her food down on the coffee table and went back into the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea. The film had already started when she walked back in. Rose swore. She'd been looking forward to that all week.

She starts to walk back to the sofa, frustrated, when something out of the window catches her eye. It's the Millennium wheel. Rose couldn't stop the onslaught of memories of a happier past. It was hard to get through a day without remembering him; her alien.

Back to her simple life, permanently it seemed…

Rose wasn't working in a shop, but she might as well be. She hated her present job just as much and really wasn't doing a thing to change it. Beans on toast, a cup of tea and the telly. That was Rose's night.

She dropped her tea in shock.

She hadn't changed a bit.

Huge overpowering sobs broke out of her and her body crumbled to the floor in a heap.

She had given up on a cure; there was no hope of getting back to her universe, her home.

This was it, her life.

_Forever._

Rose Tyler quit her job at Torchwood the very next day.

* * *

Rose Tyler went off to see the world. It had been her cover story for such a long time, while travelling with the Doctor. For some time she had actually forgotten that she'd never actually been to France in the 21st century or Spain or even a camping trip in Wales or Cornwall.

So she did.

Money wasn't an issue, it had never been in this universe. Her Mum understood that Rose needed to get away; she was busy with Rose's six-and-a-half old brother Ben to see Rose as much as she'd like anyway. Jackie had never spared attempts to keep her dear daughter happy.

Or to look happy, in any case.

Rose was in Edinburgh when her car broke down. She took one look at the steaming engine and sighed. She then walked four miles to the nearest town to ask where the nearest garage was and then another mile to find that. A week later she was back on the road and phoning Mickey to let him know she was safe. He asked her how much she had paid and then after a garbled explanation from her He only listened half heartedly to her recent adventure before announcing she had paid about one hundred pounds more than she should have.

Didn't matter.

Rose needed new things in life and she found one that fit the bill. She'd learnt to drive in this Universe; she could learn how to fix a car too.

Five years later found Rose running a small garage of her own, just near the coast in Norway.

* * *

Rose realised she was bored of Norway and having to be nice to people to get their money, so at age forty six, but never looking older than twenty-something, she decided to seek something new. Rose focused on something she'd always thought she could rather good at.

It was decided…

Rose moved back to London when her mother died. Jackie had been 87.

It was strange really, Jackie Tyler was the strongest woman Rose knew, but after Pete died (the second time for Rose's mother, five years ago) Jackie had never been the same. After that loss, due to a severe stroke, Rose had put special effort to keep in touch with her mother and family more.

The truth, if she was honest with herself, would be that she had been avoiding everyone. Things just hadn't been the same after Mickey was killed, at just 34. Of all things…a stupid bomb exploding in the technician's lab, believed to have been Plasmavore in origin, had taken him away. Why the Plasmavores wanted Torchwood to suffer, they had been able to find out. It had seemed as a gift, after a peace treaty had been signed, and no one had though twice of it.

Not before such a horrible act of hate had managed to breed such devastating effects.

Rose had met the inventor of a similar type of bomb in a bar in Mexico a short time before. For the rest of her life, she would continue to blame herself for not being there and noticing, having still been travelling at the time.

So, it was understandable that Rose came to develop some serious trust issues. She didn't feel herself capable of ever working with Torchwood again.

* * *

Rose scanned the shirt over the bar with a beep.

"**That's six pounds ninety nine then, please."** Rose smiled at the teenaged girl with too much make-up; it reminded Rose of herself, a long time ago.

"**Ta."** The girl answered, getting ready to hand over the money.

Rose turned away to put the item into a plastic bag, when something reflecting off the security mirror caught her eye: a man dressed in a dark coat two sizes too big, with a small bowler hat and dark hair. He had his back to the mirror and was looking a little too intently at the selection of women's socks for his interest to be real.

Eyes transfixed on the man in the mirror, Rose ended up folding the shirt more times than was really necessary. If she turned around, she would have a clear shot of the man. Voices in the background were calling a name, her false one, but all Rose heard was the rustle of material as the man turned around.

He looked towards the mirror, then straight at her.

A beat, then he was off, running.

Without a second thought, Rose leaped over the counter with well-practised ease. Landing easily on her feet, she pursed the man out of the shop. In his rush, a cleaning lady was knocked over and tumbled to the floor. Rose didn't miss a beat; she jumped over the middle aged woman and continued gaining speed.

"**Freeze!"** shouted Rose, but she was ignored. Not that the order ever worked, anyway.

She chased him through the shopping centre, without being able to actually grab him. Finally, the dark clothed man ran around a bench to access the exit. With one final, graceful leap Rose cleared the seat. Not loosing the momentum she had gained, she pounced on the bewildered man.

Rose restrained his arms behind his back and slapped on the pair of cuffs she had just retrieved from the back of her jeans.

"**You have the right to remain silent..."** She cried as the criminal struggled, finally deciding to sit on his back, effetely holding him still.

After all, Rose had always wanted to be a police officer.

Half an hour later back-up arrived.

* * *

"**Did you really take that guy down all by your self?"** asked Rose's eager ten year old nephew.

"**Err...yeah,"** Rose laughed slightly. **"You see, we'd heard from a reliable source that he was meant to be meeting this bloke, someone to help sell the stolen gear. But all we heard was the name of the shop. I was working undercover there, but we thought it would go down next week."**

"**So why didn't it?"** Asked Jase with a slight frown.

"**Must have gotten cold feet; wanted to get it done. I had to do it on my own or he would have gotten suspicious and left. Had no choice, really."**

"**Wow..."**

After dinner, Jase and Ben showed Rose some old photos; Rose smiled. They were of Mickey and her Mum, some of Mickey's children while growing up, some of her Dad or at least the nearest thing she ever had to one.

Suddenly, Jase gasped.

"**Auntie… is that you!?"** he yelled at the old picture.

And it was. Taken at the first Christmas here, a time when it was so painful to even think about snow. She remembered the moment it been taken. And there, registered for all eternity was Rose, sitting at the table before pudding with Mickey on one side and a very pregnant Jackie on the other.

"**Rose, you haven't changed a bit."** Said the boy.

Rose just shook her head. She felt different and had long since stopped dying her hair… The day after the first time she'd died, actually. However, looking at the picture, she had to admit; the photo could have been taken only days ago.

* * *

Rose hated Friday nights.

It wasn't because she didn't have a date.

_As if…_

The guys at the office were convinced that she was either a lesbian or asexual. Strangely, it didn't really bother her.

No, Rose hated Friday nights because she usually had to break up bar fights and take binge drinkers to a cell for the night. Most of the time, she felt like a bouncer, a taxi and an inn keeper, all for the convenience of some bloke that had decided it might be a good idea to kick another guy's face in.

Tonight was one of those nights and after she was called as backup to help break up yet another bar fight, Rose had come face to face with someone she had never expected to see, right in the middle of quarrel.

Well, in the middle of a bar fight, maybe, but never in this Universe.

"**Honestly Officers, I was only being friendly! We're alike really, we both put the cuffs on. But you take them to the station. I take them home."**

Captain Jack Harkness was the same in any Universe.

* * *

She brought him into her office instead of putting him in one the cells. She had claimed that he was an 'old friend' who 'held information about something important'. Rose was now a high level officer, so nobody argued. Not to her face, anyway. Jack was pissed, but obviously thought she fancied him, so he didn't argue.

Once he was inside, she told him everything. No real reason why.

He wasn't even her Jack. Just a Jack. Some random guy with the face of someone she had once known. Still, this Jack was very understanding and listened to her story with interest and silence.

Then, he told her about the Time Agency, of how they had taken his memories too, like her Jack. He was trying to get them back too, only he was still working with them to accomplish said feat. Staying gave him the advantage and they still told him things… Useful things they would never allow a rouge to know.

He also told her about flying, inviting her to space travel once more, to time travel. He offered her the freedom she had missed; fun and an almost easy life. And Rose almost took it.

But she had her brother and his son Jase still here, on earth.

"**Come with me."** Whispered Jack, all smile and charm. How could any woman (or man) refuse?

"**Come back in fifty five years."**

Jack gave her a funny look.

"**Why, so I can meet your granddaughter?"**

"**Please, just come back."**

* * *

Sixteen years passed.

A red car swerved and skidded along the car park.

Chief Detective Inspector Rose Tyler ran after it, ignoring her team's distressed calls.

The car held the last remaining member of the gangster family Tenson. The most feared and infamous crime family in London history. Rose had put every member behind bars for a mixture of kidnapping and murder. One more to go and then it would be over, the months of sleepless nights and non stop work would come to an end.

Over.

Rose was hit by the car.

It backed up suddenly and unexpectedly, smashing hard into her side. Pain took over her body and she couldn't think. She fell to the floor with a thud, conscious for just a moment, but long enough to see the blood pooling around her on the floor.

Rose woke up in the morgue.

She remembered another time she had woken up in a similar setting, the day she decided to do the stack of overdue Torchwood paperwork. Rose'd been poisoned by a Catanise's way of 'showing their loyalty'. Her and several other colleges had died that day.

For some reason that one time had scared her more than the other. It had been the first time she had died and woken up, when someone else who died, didn't. Terrified and feeling terribly guilty, she had changed fields, working with Torchwood's Alien Affairs instead. It had proven, in the end, to be a rewording process that had taught her about different species and languages.

After a while, she had felt herself fall into routine and boredom, prompting her to change lanes once more.

Now, as she gingerly sat up on the morgue's cold table, careful to keep herself covered, people were less understanding. Most stood by unbelieving, others backed away.

They all screamed.

Rose knew then that she had to get out. Grabbing the sheet over her, she charged towards the horrified members of her team and the forensics personnel. She slammed through the exit doors and ran out into the corridor. Confused and terrified, Rose then ran down the harsh cold tile floor, pulling the sheet further up to try and gain back her dignity.

The light and the end of the corridor…Coming, coming…

_Outside!_

The bright light caught her eyes and Rose looked frantically around the busy London street.

"**Taxi!"**

* * *

Rose rang the door bell; it didn't take long until Jase answered it. His eyes were red with tears.

"**ROSE!!"** he cried in shock.

"**Hey babe, you couldn't pay for my taxi by any chance could you?"**

They sat drinking tea in the lounge. Rose was wearing his old tracksuit and t-shirt. Something the small family had done so many times, now turned surreal.

"**You died."**

"**Yeah, doesn't normally take me so long to wake up."**

"**You've done this before?"**

"**Yeah."**

"**Why didn't you tell me?"**

"**I couldn't, I couldn't tell anyone."**

"**I could act! See this is my angry face!" **_Silence…_

Once it became clear that particular tactic wasn't working, Jase chose another.

"**How many times?"**

"**Twenty five now I think."** Her voice was calm and dispassionate. **"Usually I can hide it with a 'oh it missed' or good thump in the face to keep them quite. This is different, I can't come back now. Not there."**

"**Come to work with me."**

"**What, with UNIT?" **she laughed.** "Not really my cup of tea."**

"**No, it will be great; you've got more experience with aliens then anyone I know."**

_Silence once more._

"**How? How can you come back from the dead?" **Asked Jase in a small voice.

"**I told your Dad stories, when he was growing up. Of a man, a brilliant man. A man who travelled through time and space."** A far away gleam filed her eyes.

"**The Doctor?"**

Rose snapped down to Earth.

"**How do you know about that?"**

"**Dad told me stories when I was growing up, too, you know."**

Rose smiled. It was nice that Ben had told his son of her life. Of how they came to this Universe and of how he had come to be born in the first place. Shame he had never told her that her family had known all along, even while she had been away. The stories Rose had told the young boy Ben, the times over the years she had visited him, he had cherished that.

She would have liked to thank him.

He had died, however, in a car crash last June. A horrific affair that had taken his life and that of Jase's mother. The twenty six year old claimed he didn't need anyone, but Rose

refused to take that risk.

"**I want my key back though. You've gotta go back there and it get."**

* * *

Twenty nine years passed.

Walking into UNIT that first day, Rose had felt like a fraud. She had no real knowledge of Earth's resident species or any deep understanding of the world's advanced technology. Soon, though, she had been proven wrong. It took very little time for her to get her own office, testing and mending advanced alien weapons.

Rose Tyler was now head of Alien Associations.

Like those years spent working for Torchwood and the police, Rose worked hard to show her age through her make-up. She must have been the only ninety one and a half year old woman to ever feel the need to look older.

Jase had gotten married and had his own children now. Rose went for dinner with him every Sunday. Rose didn't like his wife Claire, though. She was awfully bright, too cheerful, all the time. If honest, Rose didn't like her because she was too much like herself when she had been young.

She also had a tendency to ask too many awkward questions about Rose and how she always looked so young.

One day Torchwood came.

She should have been expecting them, really.

They wanted to know the secrets of eternal life, so they broke into her flat.

Rose woke up in a cell. A small glass cage in the middle of a lab surrounded by Torchwood officials, 'scientists' who were likely to poke her with sticks, until they got her to do as they wanted.

Rose's nightmare.

Her very own personal hell…

They had been tracking her 'for some time', apparently. She had been their number one priority ever since the situation with the morgue and her waking up from the dead.

Rose Tyler was, in this universe, Torchwood's enemy number ONE.

She thought the Doctor might have been proud.

They thought they had learnt everything they could through 'observation' pretty fast and it wasn't long before they began testing.

That's when the real nightmare began.

* * *

One day, Rose asked how long they were going to keep her there.

"**Until you age."** A cold harsh look had shone in their eyes. She'd seen it before, of course. It was always the same terrible look of superiority that most humans adopted when dealing with _'that alien scum.'_

They'd seen the report. The one she and Mickey had made all those years ago.

She was an alien.

And if it's alien it was theirs to do as they pleased.

Of all the testing, Rose performed Mickey's. And the testing that took place in the same room when her family was alive. Not only was it warmer, but they also talked to her, explained why they where taking blood. And what they needed to do.

This 'testing' included her being strapped to a table; different methods of killing her body attempted and failed. At first, she had refused to scream. But, after five days of endless torture she could stop the cries from coming.

Torchwood's very own torture chamber.

* * *

The days were always the same… Long. It didn't take Rose long before she had completely lost track of time. It all meshed into a series of invents that were sometimes the same and some times worse than the pervious one had been.

A new girl walked into the room one day. Not the cage, of course. No one else had ever been in there. To get here out, they would gas her first. No, the girl walked into the room adjacent to her prison, the only other place Rose could see. It was where they did the tests.

Her light brown hair was tied back into a bun and a white lab coat flew down to her sides. She talked to a few people, nodding every so often and flicking through a clip board. Suddenly the group of four turned and walked towards her.

She caught the woman's eyes. Early sixties, with a wedding ring and dark green eyes.

"**Hello Tyler, I am going to be moderating your level of human like intelligence."**

Rose just stared at her.

They were sitting in either side of a small table, within a white padded room.

The woman smiled sweetly and set of a few sheets of paper, in small print, before Rose

"**Read this for me, Rose."**

Rose nodded slightly, deciding to cooperate. For now. She looked down at the papers.

_Rose,_

_Sorry we didn't come sooner but we've only just learnt where you are. This is it, we are breaking you out. I am going to give you my ring. It has been specially modified to cut glass and tonight I am in charge of the security on your floor. I will meet you when the last guard does his rounds tonight. See you out side the room. _

_You are not alone._

_There is a car waiting outside that will get you to safety. _

_Claire Tyler_

Rose glanced up at her niece in law and marvelled that too much time had passed.

"**Do you understand Tyler?" **

Rose nodded. Cameras were everywhere, any reaction would jeopardise the whole thing.

"**Right then. Could you point to me where the cow is?"** asked Claire, holding up the flash cards.

Rose lifted her eyebrow in amusement.

* * *

Sirens screeched.

"**I thought you had a plan!!!"**

"**We do have a plan!!"**

"**What, leg it?!!"**

The women ran.

Guards came out of nowhere and tired to shut the doors sectioning the corridor off. Claire pulled out her all security pass and they easily got through. Red lights flicked everywhere, lighting the way.

It felt good to run.

Her legs hadn't been moved in so long. And it always felt so good to run, either way. Specially when running as far away from this place as possible.

A lone bullet shot through the open door as Claire was running through. Rose dived in front of her. The bullet hit Rose hard on the chest, blood pooling out of her white tracksuit. She carried on running without pause.

Pushing through the final door, Claire slammed it behind them. They were in the woods, somewhere, both out of breath and freezing cold. Rose's consciousness faltered due to the massive blood loss and she stumbled.

"**No! No, Rose, come on! No, please, come on!"**

Tires screeched and a car pulled up next to them. It was a back van with dark windows, Torchwood written clearly on the side, in bright red.

_This is it, they were caught… _

The door crashed open.

"**Get in!!!"** yelled a man with a dark beard.

Rose died in the car soon after. Just three minutes later she woke up with a harsh gasp.

"**I thought it took you longer?"** pondered Claire **"…to wake up, I mean."**

"**Use to. Now, thanks to our brave boys in black, I'm quicker." **

They were in London before it really hit Rose. She began to laugh.

"**I'm out!!"** her voice dissolved into helpless giggles. **"That's just, that's….how long was I in there for?"**

"**About ten years."** Answered the man. "**It took us that long just to be allowed anywhere near you."**

"**Ten years, right. That's, hang on… Max is that you? Oh my God!"** she flung her arms around her great-nephew and soon he was laughing along with her.

"**And Sarah?"** she glanced at the blonde woman driving.

"**Yeah, it's me Rose." **

Rose laughed merrily and flopped back onto her seat.

"**This is great… This is brilliant. FANTASTIC!!" **A smile**. "Where's Jase?"**

_Silence._

* * *

The hospital was too similar to the Torchwood testing lab. The cold hard smell of disinfectant and walls that where just too white, oppressing. A man had once told her that he didn't like hospitals.

She understood more than ever why.

Jason Tyler was sixty five years old. He had had a stroke some years before and had never been the same. No speech or movement. Rose was shocked at the sight of him.

She managed compose herself, though.

"**Jase, darling, it's me, how are you, babe?"** she asked, pulling up a chair to sit next to him. His face was full of wrinkles and he blinked in ways of communication, but it was still him. Rose could still her little nephew still there.

"**Let me tell you something, mate, you did a hell of a job raising them kids. And Claire, I suppose she's not bad in very, very small doses."** Rose smiled and looked him.

"**I'm so proud of you."**

She held back a sob.

* * *

The funeral wasn't small. The family had grown while Rose was away and many friends claimed to know her, even though she had never met them.

Rose had dyed her hair a lighter brown and wore glasses, doing her best to blend in.

"**He always talked about you."**

Rose had been staring at the grave so intently that she hadn't noticed Claire appear behind her.

"**It was always Rose did this, Rose did that. You were his hero." **

Rose smiled sadly at the older looking woman.

"**I took something from the lab, before I met you there, told them I was going to try and get some sort of reaction with it."**

Claire opened her hand bag and pulled out an old Yale key. Simple looking and common, this was the thing that kept Rose together. Rose smiled at the older looking woman in thanks.

She wore dark blue and a large hat. Her eyes rimmed red and her hands were shaking, clenching within the remains of a tissue.

Rose put her arms around her slowly and held the woman as she cried.

And through her own tears, she saw him, standing at a distance, watching her. Rose caught his eyes and nodded slightly.

* * *

It was dark and the area was open. She walked up to the man and looked at him quietly.

"**Ready to go?"** asked Captain Jack, to the hundred and two year old woman standing before him.

Rose smiled.

* * *

Longest ever. Probably the longest thing I've ever written actually…. That's not good…

Anyway

Tell me what you think, hope you like it and please review.


	16. Chapter 16

**The Bohemian Time Agent**

**By TeggieLady**

_Previously…_

"_**Ready to go?"**__ asked Captain Jack, to the hundred and two year old woman standing before him._

_Rose smiled._

_Now…_

"How old is she now?" asked Jack.

"I don't know, didn't ask and she didn't say." Replied Number Ten.

"Did you ever talk to her?" Pushed Jack. "Tell her anything about your past or just anything?"

"It wasn't important. You've seen what we were like; we trusted each other. It just worked."

"She trusted you to leave her, yeah. Replace her." Bit number Nine, going in for the kill.

"It's not 'replacing' and you know it." They'd done it before to everyone else, Nine couldn't deny it. Ten was right. It just hurt more with Rose.

"He's just saying… its how Rose thinks about it." Five desperately tried to avoid another fight.

"Still had a pretty fantastic life though, ehy? Torchwood, UNIT, police officer. Everything she wanted." Ten argued back.

"Yeah, expect when she died she had to go into hiding, she was with UNIT was just to keep herself out of trouble. Torchwood betrayed her and she watched all her family die until she couldn't stand it anymore." Nine's voice thundered through the darkness.

"If you had talked to her about it, on a better way... She wouldn't have felt so alone. Wouldn't have come to hate herself like that. Because she did, didn't she? Don't tell me you didn't see it?" Jack didn't want to see Rose in so much pain anymore. But they still had a way to go, it seemed.

* * *

Rose was cold.

It was strange really, but she'd been that way for a while. She'd succumbed to a chilling 'cold' on that beach in Norway and had never really been able to warm up.

Jack was cold too. As they walked to where he could use his Time Agency issued Vortex Manipulator, he explained it was all part of the plan. Act like he was still working for them, even after they had taken two years of his memories away. Doing that allowed him to use their resources and ask the questions he, otherwise, wouldn't have answered. His past, his memories depended on that.

They didn't chuck him out; he was given the choice to stay or to leave. His plan was to take what he could get, then leave.

Always the conman…

But Rose couldn't help but wonder….who was conning who?

Jack Harkness wasn't even his real name, he didn't know his real name.

"**I'm taking you to the Agency, that way you can learn how to fly and fix your basic Time an' Space ship. Sound good?"**

"**Great."**

They walked on in silence waiting for a clear area private are.

"**So, you've had experience with alien tech and ships before? I mean, in this Universe?"**

"**A little. At Torchwood, I did most of the talking. Peace treaty meetings, welcome to Earth speeches, taught alien cultural studies… Stuff like that."**

"**Doesn't sound too bad."**

Rose laughed.

"**When you've seen what I've seen, you'll eventually get stuck staring at the same four walls all day, where no one could kill you. It gets pretty bad. Still, learnt a few alien languages, studied different species, it was ok for a while."**

"**Then you worked for the Police?"**

"**No, then I went and did a bit of travelling… Worked as a mechanic; had my own garage for a few years. Then, a cop… to be nearer to the family, then I got hit by a car…Tyler's aren't very lucky with cars."** She paused, reminiscing. **"Then, a UNIT officer. You know? Guns and gadgets mostly for that. New toy on the block and my department was the first to look at it."**

"**So you know something about alien tech?"** asked Jack hopefully. **"Something useful?"**

"**Depends what you think would be 'useful' to know about weaponry."**

* * *

Rose learnt a lot about space ships.

First, it was to fly them. Jack got her in as a new recruit for the WDOO Unit. Basically, she was a glorified Time and Space ship Taxi driver. But Rose wasn't going to stay long, Rose was never planning on staying long anywhere ever again.

_Never…_

Jack and Rose didn't really spend much time together, just occasionally talking. About nothing personal, of course, that would be too difficult on Rose. And Jack wasn't really sure about his personal life anymore, not after the memory wipe.

So, they steered clear of the personal parts.

Until, one day, Jack asked a very personal question, far away from the conversations about work, aliens and spaceships.

"**Do you want me to find the Doctor?"**

"**What?"** It had caught her completely off guard.

"**I could do with the proper resources, not your version. But this world's. Then you could travel with him."**

"**Jack, the Doctor is…a pain in the arse sometimes. He's annoying or oblivious or just a right prat. And he's the kindest most wonderful man I've ever met. And it hurts so much. Even now that he's gone. Because I loved him. Still love him. And that's never gonna change. Even if he does."**

"**Ok, so he might not be completely the same but-"**

"**But nothing Jack. If he's not my version, my Universe…zzz… my Doctor. Then I don't want to know. Torchwood is power mad. Cybermen took over with ear pieces in the early two thousands. And no one was in their way to stop them. No one."**

Rose paused to catch her breath

_How could anyone ask me something like this?_

"**If there was a Doctor in this world, they would have been stopped. And if there is a Doctor and he just ignores everything bad in the universe and doesn't even try to make a difference…" **She swallowed down the tears that came uninvited**. "Then… I don't want to meet him."**

* * *

Rose was doing well.

She was still harsh and cold and strange to most people, but she was doing well.

She took a drag of her cigarette and lifted the bonnet of the broken ship.

"**You know, that's really not a good idea."** Came a voice from the doorway. **"Smoking and working with petrol is just an accident waiting to happen."**

Rose had started smoking again just after Jase had died; something she hadn't done since she was seventeen. But it was familiar, comforting, and really wouldn't kill her in the end, so…

_Why not?_

"**Yeah, guess it isn't."** She laughed.

"**What are you doing with that hunk-a-junk?"**

"**Danes gave us one each and told us to fix it. If I fix it, then I will have passed the whole thing. Free woman."** She slammed the boot back down and looked over to Jack.

"**And you think you can fix that?"**

"**Nope"** She replied simply. **"He doesn't like me cos' I told him I'd rather make out with a Sycorax then him."**

"**Yes, insulting the guy who is about to grade you, very smart."** Jack laughed, shaking his head from side to side.

"**So, I should have just said, **_**'oh, yes! I love a man, who has not washed in six months and is proud of it. Lets snog?'**_** besides I don't care about grading."**

"**You need a descent grade to be an agent."** Jack reminded her.

"**I don't wanna be an agent. You know that."** Rose looked up at him, while clearing her tools away.

"**Thought you'd change your mind."**

"**Yeah, everyone always says that when they want me to do what they want."** _She would never be free from people trying to control her would she?_ **"Look I'm not working for another organisation, alright? Not again. I just can't."**

"**Why not?"**

_Had he forgotten already what they did to him?_

"**Because I don't like Government organisations."**

"**You don't like anything."** Jack pushed further.

"**That's not true."** Snapped Rose.

She did like things once.

"**I like Women wept. Beautiful place and that's not just me being girlie, it's absolutely beautiful. It's like…well, I don't know what it's like, never had that good a Christmas whenever it snowed. So I can't compare it to that. But it's fun and fantastic and impossible and brilliant. I like waking up in a morning and not caring about what you do or where you go. As long as you do it with the one person you care about. The one person who means the world to you and everything in between. And you'd do anything just to spend time with them. **

**I also like the colour pink and **_**that,**_** is just me being girlie."**

* * *

Rose had fixed the ship.

It had taken the better part of three months, but it was fixed.

Now, it was time to hand in the report.

She had lied to Jack, when she had told him she didn't want to stay. But it wasn't the guns or the ships that had attracted her to the Agency. It was the fact that Jack, her Jack from the other Universe had spent his life working there. She wanted to find out everything she could about this version of the Time Agency.

And she really didn't want to be on her own.

She broke into the 'team leader's office, using hacking techniques that Mickey had taught her all those years ago. She flicked through the files, not really expecting to find anything. After all, Jack had looked through it when he had reenlisted.

But, unexpectedly, she did find something else.

* * *

Rose siphoned the petrol from one of the standard Agency ships. The strange purple liquid flowed freely into the container. Rose bit her lip; this really was taking too long.

"**So, I ask myself, what's a girl like you doing in a place like this."** Said an American accented voice.

"**I'm getting away with a company ship."** Answered Rose smoothly. **"And you're coming with me."**

They were back in the garage.

Rose's, once broken and very basic but now, fully functioning ship was ready to go. And Time Agents were trying to break in.

"**Do you leave this many friends wherever you go?"**

"**It's my likeable personality"** grinned Rose.

She fought to get the ship logged onto the vortex. Struggling, trying to use everything she had been taught in the past two years, she was determined to break free.

It wasn't working. They were going to get caught. They were going to take her memories.

Jack, Jase, Ben, Mum, Dad, Mickey… the Doctor.

He was right. When people died, it hurt like hell.

But she wouldn't have missed it for the world.

And she was not going to hand over her memories without a fight.

The engine roared to life.

_That was more like it!_

"**JACK!"** Rose yelled towards the figure barricading the door.

"**Jack this is it! Come on, get in!!"**

Jack didn't say anything.

"**You knew, didn't you?"**

"**It was why I was in the bar. Heard rumour some of the Torchwood staff liked to hang out round there."** He glanced back at her face then turned quickly away.

More silence.

"**It was my job to find out old aims, new targets."**

"**So, you're employed to spy on Torchwood, see what happens… methods, means of tech, that kind of stuff. Because one day, Torchwood is going to become the Time Agency, isn't it?"** Rose shook her head.

"**Yeah."**

"**You knew all along"** It was a statement, not a question.

"**Yeah."**

"**Come with me?"**

He didn't. Rose flew off on her own.

_Alone once again…_

* * *

Although the ship was in the best of its condition, it crash landed not far from the Space Station based Agency.

That was not good in so many levels. The main one being that the Agency was going to come after her and she wasn't further enough away. She could never be further enough away from Torchwood, or any form of it. Time Agency was what they changed its name to, after the fight for Alien rights in 2078. Suddenly, the public didn't look too kindly on them anymore.

_I wonder why?_ A sarcastic voice echoed in her mind.

Now, they were after her because she had not only stolen their ship (however broken and useless it may have been. They used Vortex Manipulators for a reason, after all), but because she had broken into their offices and gone through there private files.

Jack had once told her she was being paranoid.

_Even if you are paranoid it doesn't mean they aren't out to get you…_

She rather be paranoid than naive.

Rose was on a planet she didn't recognise, on her own and with a broken ship. It really wasn't her day.

She fought the air bag of the ship, which had deployed during the crash landing. She rubbed her head and sighed when she felt cold blood, wondering how long she had been dead for this time.

She was in the middle of an exotic looking jungle, her ship curled around a large bolder in a very unnatural way. It had skidded along the floor, so mud now camouflaged the pipes and switches underneath the machine.

Rose had discovered she had a strange passion for fixing engines. Nobody really questioned it except Mickey one time. He didn't do it again after.

"**Why do you want to be a mechanic anyway? The pay's crap."**

"**I suppose I sort of… I miss the smell of engine oil."**

"**Wow….if I knew that's what you liked I wouldn't have had showers before we went out."**

Mickey had bee joking, of course. He knew that a little bit of grease and grime wouldn't make Rose love him like she loved the Doctor. The smell simply reminded her that she hadn't always been as alone and bitter as this.

This ship, however, was unfixable.

Rose really didn't know enough about it to take it to pieces in such a dramatic extent, as she really didn't feel like getting electrocuted. Again.

She had no money and no way of getting any, to buy another ship.

She shuddered to think of what else could go wrong.

_Great._

It was soon after that that Rose was captured by bright blue natives and tied to a tree. Humans were a delicacy for the locals, or at lest that's what she assumed when the man in a large pink feathers headdress (the chief probably) sprinkled her with something that smelt strangely like pepper.

He spoke very little English, but from what Rose could understand, there was to be a feast to celebrate the fact that their tribe was to be "one with the stars."

_Whatever that meant._

Rose used her Time Agency issued knife, strapped to her left boot, to break free of the rope. She was walking away quietly when she saw something rather odd.

It was a space ship. A real life, working space ship. With the keys in.

It was a popular make, which meant Rose knew how to drive it. As she looked it over she found some of the edges ripped and scuffed. This had landed here, but what had happened to person in it?

There was a fierce angry scream from ahead.

_Ah… right yes…food._

Rose opened the ship and started the engine.

It was only later that she felt slightly guilty for taking the ship. It wasn't really their fault they had thought she was edible. Really, taking the ship had been stealing. But returning it would have been…

Well…

_Never mind._

* * *

Rose wanted to get as far away from the 51st Century as possible. So she locked onto the past.

A warehouse in America in 1966 wasn't exactly what she had planned, but…

Four people were trapped inside with her.

And the only people, who know where they actually were, wanted them dead.

They needed a way out, if that was even possible.

"**Look lady, we've been here a week before you showed up, walking in like you owned the place, not telling us how you got in."** the man was yelling at her. Apparently, 'the leader', a man who had survived the Second World War, had his doubts about surviving this **"The only way out is through that door. And you only do that if you have a death wish."**

Aliens waiting outside, it seemed. Machine guns and suites really shouldn't make her laugh, but Rose finds it hard to hold the laughter in.

Rose wanted to leave them behind. She could if she wanted to. Should have really. After all, how much help could she be? What could she do?

She wasn't the Doctor.

The Company using the warehouse were grinding up alien children, to put in cigarettes making the nice men outside rather angry.

Rose quit smoking right there and then.

_Cold turkey. _

The employees got blamed, even if they knew nothing about it.

Of the twenty six people employed there, most had already been killed.

"**I don't understand, why haven't the police found us if you've been missing so long?"** Rose tries to put things together.

"**It was in the job description. No families. Nobody to miss you"**

"**You went for a job that said nobody would miss you? Didn't think it was a little bit weird?"** She couldn't believe her own species sometimes.

"**I needed the money."** Was all the man offered in reply.

"**Can you save us?"** It was a woman's voice, her eyes, full of tears, looking at Rose expectantly.

"**No."**

But she did, in the end.

She saved every one of those people inside the factory. All she did was by fix a radio signal to contact the local police. She couldn't save the aliens, though, no matter how much she might have wanted to.

They called her a hero, not because she saved the world.

But because she saved them.

And suddenly, for the first time, she felt like one, too.

* * *

It went on like that.

Rose sometimes saved people, sometimes saved the world, whatever world it was that week. Sometimes, she double crossed them and commandeered their ship.

But she always made sure they were alive first, that they had a way home.

Her life slowly became the past she longed to conquer back.

Still, there was something missing...

Thinking too much about it, however, is on Rose's list of things not to be done. It opened to much space to consider that which might have been and that hurt worst of all. So she never dwelled on it.

* * *

If it weren't for the scratchy underwear, Rose would feel like a woman… The heels and the shoes and her hair up, it all made her feel good.

She had used her looks to get a ship before, but that never made her feel womanly, just a fake. After it had all been said and done, she only felt like someone who was way out of her depth.

The air raid siren starts.

And it was nothing like before.

* * *

"**Here you go, that should help with the pain."** Said the Nurse.

"**Thank you, Nurse Tyler."** The young solider grinned, but as he tried to sit up, it quickly turned into a wince.

"**Usually, at times like this, I make a nice cup of tea." **

The solider grinned.

"**But we ran out of tea about of year ago."**

"**Gin's better."** He answered kindly, **"So…are you walking out with anybody these days, miss?"**

"**And why would you be interested in that?"** she started to clean the wound, changing the bandages… again. The third time since he had come in two hours ago.

"**Well I was just wondering if you had some pretty, brave boy out on the frontline?"**

Rose laughed.

"**Not in this war, no. Usually he likes to get involved with other people's."**

"**Oh."** Said the solider, confused. **"So, you do have someone there?"**

"**No, not really, not like that."** Not in the way he meant.

"**Well then, miss Tyler, it would be my great honour if you would accompany me to the Cinema as soon as this old plank of wood heals."** He tapped his forehead lightly on the other side from where Rose was examining.

She looked at the boy. So young, enlisted on his 18th birthday.

His head wasn't healing right.

"**Why, solider, I don't even know your name?"**

"**Sam Wilks."**

"**Rose Tyler."** She bows her head slightly. **"And yes, Solider Sam, I would love to walk out with you."**

"**Fantastic." **

_Wince._

Sometimes she wished that word didn't exist in this universe.

"**It might be a while through."** She murmured as she sat him back down gently.

"**Well, then we have plenty of time to get to know each other."**

"**Indeed."** Rose looked at him.

Silence.

"**Say you had a time machine-"** Sam laughed, but she carried on. **"You had a time machine… where would you go?"**

Sam thought for a while.

"**Before this war and the last one, so I could change it."**

"**No, that's a rule, you can't change anything."**

"**Well, where would you go?"** he asked, smiling.

"**That's the thing, I have no idea."** She was here just for a while her, until she managed to get her ship fixed. Rose had no real hurry, though… She had run out of ideas of places to go to years ago.

"**Before the war, when everything was quite and peaceful and whole and nice."** Sam answered eventually.

"**What about after? After the war?"**

"**There's an after?"**

That night Sam's last words were how sorry he was that he and Rose never got to go on their date.

* * *

It was a long time before Rose does what every conman and woman dreaded.

She got noticed.

They used elector shields to cut down her ship and dragged it down to a hot dusty place.

Rose awoke in an office room tied to a chair.

It was a chair that spins around and Rose spent the next hour and a half spinning on it. Until the sharp mechanisms on the back of the chair broke the rope her hands were tied with, that is. Once free, Rose caught a glance of herself in the mirror.

_They had cut her hair!_

It was short in the most unattractive way, and the once white jumpsuit with it does her no favours.

Sometimes things just didn't go her way.

What went her way, though, was the clear inefficiency of her captures. They were armatures. The Short circuit ray wasn't theirs and this was just somewhere she had happened to land. And when a woman fell out of the sky in a very expensive ship, they knew not what to do with her.

So they tied her to a chair.

_With rope. _

They didn't even take her TARDIS key, everything else but the thing that is always tied to her neck. That was good, because then she didn't have to fight to get it back.

However, on this planet, only criminals had their hairs short, and the sentence to any crime is death.

Roe escaped and got into the cargo holding area...

Just in time to see her ship get crushed.

She was lucky in the sense that the boss of this little armature prison liked golf.

Rose hotwired the golf cart, (so her time with Jimmy Stone wasn't a complete waste, after all), then she escaped into the desert in this small unless machine.

She couldn't see the building when the cart ran out of petrol. That was quite well, considering. Rose had it at top speed for most of the time. She lifted the boot and found a spanner, an old sports bag, and a stained tracksuit that looked too much like sweat.

Rose got changed from the prison clothes and started to take apart the cart.

After putting some of the pieces into the bag, she began to walk.

She was at the nearest town by night fall and went straight into a garage that was locking up for the night.

"**Hello, sorry to bother you, but I've got a proposition for you."**

She sold the pieces for half their worth and both her and the buyer knew it. She made him through in half a bottle of cheap whisky and a hat, but still…she could have gotten more if she didn't look like a criminal. She wonders how many other people have come here with the same purpose, for the old balding beer stained purchaser not to care.

Rose spent the night in the ladies public loo.

In the morning she bought some clothes and a wig.

Then looked for a ship.

* * *

The couple in the small Reagull 40 drove so close past her head she felt the wig tilt slightly.

The couple looked proud and expensive, a strange couple by all accounts. He was well over the average weight for a man and she like a bony jumble of toothpicks, all points and angles.

They pulled up outside the hotel and Rose, running towards them, saw her chance.

"**Good afternoon, sir, may I ask why you have parked here."**

The man looked highly confronted.

"**I didn't see a car park."**

There wasn't one. Rose had looked around the hotel carefully.

"**Oh! I am sorry, sir, we have valet parking." **

"**Valet parking, really?!"** the woman screeched and Rose tried hard not to wince.

"**Yes, m'am."**

"**I don't see anything."** Said the man.

_There was always one, wasn't there?_

"**I'm sorry, what do you-?"** Rose cut herself off and glanced around widely.

"**Damn it! This is the third time this week!"** she yelled passionately, causing the couple to jump.

"**Sorry?"** the couple looked rather nervous.

"**The boys, who do the parking, wondered off again."** Rose shook he head. **"I tried my best with those boys, I really did-"**

"**There's one now."** Said the woman pointing to a teenaged boy in the hotel uniform walking outside towards them.

_Yes, always one._

"**Ha"** nodded Rose, before running to meet him.

"**Hello, sunshine! How are you."** Rose's tone was bright but her expression was angry, her arms began to wave frantically from side to side.

"**Ermm, all right."** The boy was clearly nervous.

"**Listen."** Rose pointed at him. **"Those are my parents over there,"** she pointed to the couple. **"And I'm trying to impress them."** She smiled widely, putting her hands on her hips.

"**Now would you mind going up to them now, getting them a drink at the bar? Just while I park."**

The boy was unsure. Rose glanced at his name badge.

"**It's ok…Mark, really all you have to do is walk up to them and take them to the bar, it'll look dead good, and I'll give you a mega tip."** Rose smiled.

Rose's accent had changed over the years away from London, becoming softer. Though she sometimes used it to con someone. Her teacher at University had once told her it made her sound thick, so now she used it to lug the victim into a false sense of security.

She was reminded of the Doctor and his cheeky grin.

As the bloke was still thinking about it Rose walked, back to the couple in a brisk pace. They had seen the whole thing, but had heard nothing.

"**It's all sorted, please choose anything from the bar free of charge, while I wait for someone to park your ship."**

"**I don't want it scratching."** _As if she would do that._

"**No, of course not, sir."**

The boy walked up behind her.

"**Ah, hello. This is Mark and he'll take you to the bar."** Mark nodded and walked away as the couple started to follow him.

"**Keys?"** asked Rose quickly.

The man stopped and threw the con woman his keys, before strutting after his wife, confidently.

_

* * *

_

_Five…_

_Four… _

_Three… _

_Two… _

_One…_

The Larws Effect exploded.

As the bright green light consumed the darkness of space, Rose sighed. From her Reagull 40, she stood still, looking out as history marked itself.

She ate another piece of popcorn and looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was growing back; it was now past her ears at least. Still it had a long way to go. Before putting the mirror sunshield down from the roof of the ship, she took out the licence above it.

As it turned out, the over weight Mr Alan Switchson had good taste in space ships.

A warning siren rang out. Mauve lights flashed, and then Rose was pulled in.

Faster and faster, Rose soon gave up fighting it and just held on.

It was madness.

Too much, too fast…

_Then nothing._

She woke up in the lounge of a cruise ship.

* * *

Right that was it chapter 16, means one more chapter to go!!!!

so any questions you have that you feel i may have forgotten about please let me know.

shout out to Tom because hes the only person who I've met you says they will read this and has actually done so.

Hey Tom!

anyway thanks for the reviews, last chapter next!!!


	17. Chapter 17

**Hello, Mirror man**

**By TeggieLady**

_Previously…_

_Then nothing._

_She woke up in the lounge of a cruise ship._

_Now…_

Rose had a choice.

The food and oxygen shortage clouded everyone's judgement and the people trapped aboard the ship were getting scared and restless. Rose had all the engines working for the first time in a long time; possibly only three months, but it felt like three years.

But it was on a time limit.

She had to work fast. With instructions written on the clip board in her hand, she set out to save herself and the people aboard the forgotten vessel. To get maximum amount of power in the engine room, she cut off energy in corridors and rooms people weren't using.

This meant she could also save oxygen.

Rose ran up the stairs as fast as she could to get to the navigation room was, but as she glanced at the screen hanging from the wall of the engine room, she saw there was a living life form in an area that would soon be cut off of all oxygen. Unable to contact anybody, Rose ran as fast as she possibly could.

"I didn't know she saved your life." Said number Ten raising an eyebrow at Martha.

"Yeah, she really knows how to make an impression." Martha smiled slightly.

DWDWDWDWDWDWWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWWDWDWDW

Rose saw the Doctor. Her Doctor, number Nine.

It hurt like nothing had ever come close to hurting when she saw him. First shock, then the disappointing numbness that always seemed to follow, when she realised she would never be able to keep him. She didn't love him more or less than Number Ten. She loved both of them the same.

Missed them both the same.

DWDWWDWDWDWWDWDWDWDWDDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDDWDWDW

Jack died.

Right in front of her, he just died.

She wasn't completely shocked when he woke up, of course, just curious as to what it was like for him.

Similar for her as it turned out.

He was on his own.

They had been alone. Both the Doctor and Jack. Each was the only other person in the Universe who would live nearly as long as each other. Who would always be there, who would understand.

But they wouldn't be there to keep each other safe, because the Doctor had run.

Rose had never asked questions about the Captain; she had simply assumed he had been killed. So many had that fated day. If only Rose had pushed harder then… The Doctor would have had someone with him when she left.

So would have Jack.

But they never talked about the dead.

She felt betrayed. The Doctor had left Jack behind, just like Sarah Jane. Just like he would do to her. It didn't matter that she now had a life span similar to his. Jack had that too and look where that had gotten him. A ship full of dead bodies and a century all on his own. What would happen when the Doctor found out she was just like him, just like Jack, she wondered.

Would he leave her too? Would he leave her here? In this Universe…

_Alone._

After all, the life span of a human never came into it. If you could have all the time in the world with the person you love, it would have never been enough. If the Doctor had wanted her before when she was human he could have been with her. But he hadn't so now he mustn't want it either.

The Doctors walked in grinning about how wonderful he was. And Rose thought maybe it wasn't so bad for him. The Doctor, he had _Martha_ and she seemed very ….nice. And Rose was sure they would soon get past the death glares the other woman was currently giving her (and not for the first time). The Doctor wasn't alone, he had Doctor Jones. But Jack didn't, all those years he didn't have anyone. If he wasn't going to say anything about it to the Doctor, Rose certainly would.

DWDWDWDWDWDWWDWDWDWDWWDWDWDWWDWDWWDWDWDW

"**So, is this all an effort to get a girl's attention?"** Rose asked silkily. **"Plant a multiuse** **transporter beam, that makes a programmed individual pulled and trapped in it, make the engines of the ship its attached too freeze, so you can then kidnap and attempt to kill her?"**

The Master laughed, but it sounded cold. **"Not usually, but you do seem quite special."**

"**Why do you need the Doctor? You're not even real. You're a fake, a copy of the real you, projected from the other Universe, you follow his orders. Why doesn't he wait until the Doctor is in that Universe, then kill him?"**

The time lord smiled charmingly. **"This isn't about him, Rose."** Rose stared at him for a second, confused.

"**You see. The other me, the real me, didn't think there was a way to this Universe, so he told me to get hold of you. The Doctor..zz are just here because they were in the way. Currently the real me, if you will, holds the Doctor in the other Universe and Jack in a sort of…cell. Either he escaped or I have failed in my mission to rule the Universe."**

"**My guess is you've failed. There's something about a bloke being a mass murderer that just makes you want stop him having any power."** Rose stood opposite him with her arms crossed, smiling slightly**. "Why do you need me?"**

"**I need to hurt the Doctor. In this world or that one, I need to hurt him. I have to win. The most painful thing that can happen to you is to relive old memories. But the worst thing imaginable is to relive someone else's. To see, from the person you love's perspective, no better way to hurt them. Especially with someone as good and righteous as the Doctor. I will record them using the helpful machine in the other room and then send it to my other self. He lets me go. I get to live in this world between limbo and reality alone. And he gets what he wants to control the Doctor. Everyone wins. Well except for the Doctor… obviously." **The Master rolled his eyes, clearly amused with himself.

"**Yeah, expect for one problem."** Rose looked at him smiling. **"He doesn't love me, not** **like that. We were friends, that's how he saw me. He only came to this world to make sure I wasn't spending my life mooning for him. My memories won't hurt him."**

"**No? Well, it's worth a try. Don't be afraid, the Imaginetric has a fifty fifty percent success rate. Usually it goes off without a hitch and you get to keep all your memories. Sometimes it doesn't, of course and you struggle to remember your own name, but that's just an on the job accident." **Stupid smile, again. That disarming smile that was a little to like the Doctor.

"**So what? You ask nice and throw in a hot shower and a change of clothes and I'm meant to what? Say 'yeah, sure, open me up and let's look what's inside?' What didn't I think of that?" **asked the mechanic with a raised eyebrow.

"**Well, yes, that…but the fact that I'll also kill Miss Jones if you don't, should also come into consideration."** The Master was still smiling, but Rose didn't doubt his threat. **"And maybe you and Jack a few times, just for fun."**

Still, Rose laughed, determined to get the upper hand

"**So what! Why should I care. She's my replacement."**

"**Yes. she is… you might not care for her, but I bet the Doctor does."**

Rose sighed, no chance of getting out of it then, even if she was lying about Martha. She may not like her, but…Rose didn't like Sarah Jane when they met. It was tradition among companions really, to hate the woman you replaced and hate your replacement. **"Warm shower, change of clothes and the life of Martha Jones?"**

"**Yes… why is the shower so important to you?"**

"**Well I'm covered in my own cold blood… again and I haven't had a shower in about three months because we were trying to save water."**

"**Ah right… yes."** The Master pointed over his shoulder. **"Showers through there."**

"**Thanks."** Rose started walking past him, and then turned around. **"What will it be like having these memories?"**

"**Like your there. Reliving them again, the same thoughts and feelings, exactly the same as before."**

"**Can't wait…"**

DWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDWDSDWDWDW

The room swarmed pitch black. Like the black hole, the planet that shouldn't have existed, but orbited. Or like the deep, dark pits of the werewolf eyes… nothing but danger amongst them.

And then it was gone. And white followed.

The tenth Doctor woke in the lab room, still standing, though being unaware of it until recently. He spun around frantically, until he saw her.

_Rose. _

Not a memory but in the flesh.

Awake.

She pulled her hand out from underneath the leather straps that were meant to have held her easily in place. First her left arm, then her right. She then started on the other straps, finally managing to free herself completely.

She sat on the bed, then dropped down gracefully onto her feet, wobbling only slightly. Her expression remained blank.

"Rose?" Muttered Number Nine urgently, though terrified to startle her.

"Bollocks" yelled the Master, his voice echoing throughout the room. He lay sprawled out onto his back. It a flash, though, he jumped quickly to his feet.

"What happened? What the Hell did you-" he cut himself off in mid sentence, gazing at Rose like she held all the answers in the Universe.

"The Drums." Whispered the Master. "I can't hear them….they're gone."

"Lucky you." Snapped Rose. She walked out of the room after adding, "I can still hear them".

DWDWDWDWDWDWWDWDWDWDWWDWDWDWWDWDWDWDWDWDWD

Rose had the power of the BAD WOLF sleeping dormant inside her.

When she died, she would be brought back to life and when her memories were invaded, BAD WOLF would be unleashed upon them. Only thing is….now Rose is old. Very old. Older then a 20th to 21st Century human should ever live to be. And in that time she has learnt to use the darkness inside her, to control it to do her bidding.

Harry Saxon (or whatever his name maybe) had made her feelings be repeated. In doing so, he had challenged the BAD WOLF.

So the BAD WOLF had taken away the thing he was always so proud of. The Master was no longer a Time Lord. The real 'Master' remained one, of course, the one living in the other world… but this one, this copy, was nothing but an ordinary man.

Oddly enough, this Master wasn't complaining.

After all…

He could no longer hear the drums. Even when he was hiding as a human for all those years he could still her the drums. Now he couldn't. They were gone.

But Rose could, just like the Time Lords she had looked into the Time Vortex, so now, although she sang with the singing of the vortex, she danced with the drums.

Her memories were not erased, thank goodness. The Third Doctor wasn't able to stop it without that happening so he chose not to. The Master now had no real reason to fight and was quite content in staring into the metaphorical space with a strange smile on his face.

This left number Ten to wonder around the limbo house in search for Rose. He really had no idea what to say to her.

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The Tenth Doctor walked down endless corridors that were all lined in dark oak wood. The gas lamps on the walls stood dusty and unused, no need for them in the bright burning sun. Of light and warmth around them, all the Doctor felt was dark and cold.

This world wasn't real, so he wasn't too surprised when he opened a door at random and saw New Earth. Not the New Earth Martha saw, with kidnapping, drugs and never ending motorways. No, it was the New Earth filled with apple grass, hover cars high above your head and a hospital within sight. This was the New Earth he liked to remember.

The one with Rose.

It was like stepping into the world from the TARDIS. First there was the enclosed space, then the open air. The bright beautiful blue sky ahead, with hover cars whizzing past. It was all so real, the smell of apple grass, the strong wind whipping at his suit, everything.

His suit was still covered in Rose's blood.

"It's amazing really, walk into a room and think about something else. When he's not in charge of everything it can be so…fantastic." Cried Rose standing behind him suddenly. He turned around and saw the TARDIS in the background.

"Anywhere in the Universe and you choose here?" asked the Doctor, turning to face her so they could talk. "Why?"

"Why not? It's the future. Proof that you can live through the pain, of the present and the past. Shining towards a better and brighter way of life." Rose laughed and shook her head. She wasn't happy but she believed in what she said. There was a better future, or at least_ a _future and that was it. "Ok, so there's human farms, where they're treated like rats. Crazy cat nuns and skin tight human trampolines that snatch your body. But so what?! No world's perfect, who is perfect?"

"The Master." The Doctor started before he realised he had Rose's undivided attention. "He can't hear the drums."

"If he wants them back tell me to make a mix tape." Snapped Rose. "I can't bring them back, don't wanna go through all that again either. Besides, Jack told me, he dies soon after he gets the tape. And when he does the copy, the fake Master will die as well."

An unpleasant silence sounded, Rose willed herself to talk, if only to fill the empty space, "Feel better though, I don't have to tell you anything about my life."

"I'm sorry." The Doctor said simply because at times like this it was the only thing to say. "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault, privacy is overstated anyway."

"No, not about that," Rose raises her eyebrow at him. "Though obviously I am sorry for that…what I mean is…

I'm sorry I didn't tell you about Jack. Everything that's been drilled into me since before I can remember was telling me to run. My gut instinct was telling me to run. But, you're right, I shouldn't have left him. He didn't deserve that. I'm sorry I left you in France. I thought we were alright, no that's not true, that's a lie, I knew we weren't alright, I just didn't think you'd think of yourself like Sarah when I did it. Though Nine is being really childish and calling her 'Madam Du Pompawhore'; Reinette, I mean, not Sarah Jane, but you already knew that…I'm sorry for not telling you about Sarah Jane, I should have, I'm sorry. I've told everyone after you about you. Not that there has been many people after you but…

I'm sorry I never told you about Bad Wolf, I'm sorry you got involved with Torchwood and I'm sorry you had to watch your family die, I'm sorry you're….how old are you now?" the Doctor broke off his speech to ask.

Rose smiled, her short hair blowing in the cool wind. "Four hundred and eighty two, eighty three next week."

"I…I'm sorry, you felt alone.

I'm sorry I wasn't there for you, that I couldn't get you back sooner, but I'm here now… please Rose will you come with me? Back to the TARDIS?"

"You still want me? Even though I'm just like Jack?"

"Yes, Rose, it doesn't matter, nothing else matters…I…" the Doctor took a deep breath and said the hardest thing he had ever said.

"I love you….I mean I'm in love with you, and I hurt you and I'm sorry. I didn't know, I just didn't know. I love you; I'm in love with you. Always was, always will be no matter what."

The smile Rose gave him in return was worth it, and so much more. He might even say it again at some point.

"I love you too."

She took a hesitant step closer and the Doctor filled in the rest.

Under the light of a fake sun, one fake grass, in an imaginary world looking like a second Earth, the Doctor and Rose shared their first kiss. No possession, or genetic transfers.

Just them. Ready to start their lives together.

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They were back in the real world. Still in the other Universe but at least it was the real world.

There was a knock on the lounge door.

"Tyler?"

"Yeah." Answered Rose, walking over to the door.

"We were talking, all of us like," the middle aged elected leader looked uncomfortable. "An' we decide that if you think we should work together, that that's how we'll survive, then we'll do it. We'll work with them."

"Brilliant!" grinned Rose.

The man smiled uncertainty back. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Go away?"

The transporter beam was quickly taken apart by the Four Doctors with 'helpful support' from Martha, Rose and Jack.

As soon as the last wire was cut, the main ship lights went back on.

And an unfamiliar buzz echoed through the walls.

"What's that?" asked Martha,

"That Miss Jones," smiled number Three, "that is the engines, working once again. Good and as new."

The Doctors and Companions left without any goodbyes. It was always meant to be like that for Rose. Once she flicked the once impossible switch that sent a distress signal, she walked back to the TARDIS.

She went back to the other Universes.

No goodbyes.

No tears.

Rose had had enough of those in that Universe to last her a life time.

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Saying goodbye to the Ninth Doctor proved to be harder.

Never would be easy, either way it went.

The other Doctor had their memories wiped in 'the most efficient way' which had started an argument, swallowing the awkward silence giving the console room a much more natural feel. They had gone and Rose, Martha, Jack Nine and Ten, were now stoad in the later Doctors TARDIS. Rose hugged Jack and told me she'd see him soon. For once Jack really did believed that the TARDIS would soon be parked outside the hub, Jack and the Tenth Doctor gave a short manly hug. At first as Jack pulled the other man into his arms it was awkward, then they relaxed.

"Thank you." The Doctor whispered in his ear. Jack smiled, things would be very different around here.

Saying goodbye to Martha proved more difficult to Rose. They smiled at each other and for one crazy moment it looked like they would shake hands. Martha suddenly pulled Rose into a one armed hug. Rose smiled behind her back, understanding better than anyone the sacrifice Martha was making.

"Thank you" Rose said sincerely as they pulled apart.

"You saved my life so we're even," Martha smiled back. "Just look after him, I don't think he can even make a cup of tea by himself with out getting involved in some life or death thing."

The women laughed ignoring both of the Doctors "Oi!!"s of protest.

Jack and Martha disappeared out of the TARDIS doors and into Cardiff. Next stop London 2006 to where the other TARDIS was parked and the younger Rose was at her mothers.

As Ten went to set the quadrants for the Estate, he left Rose and Nine to have some privacy.

"I've missed you." Rose didn't look at Nine when she spoke. It was the only way she would be able to say this. "I've missed him, and you and you're the same person, so I miss you both."

Rose ignored then blue eyes staring at the side of her head, trying to catch her eyes. She carried on, "You hug me differently, you sound different, you smell-"

"Oi!" cried number Nine confused.

"-different" Rose smiled, "I'm serious he smells like cinema, I don't know whether it's his shampoo, or his aftershave…it's probably his aftershave. But you, you smell of mint and sort of…vanilla."

"Sounds very manly." Said the Doctor frowning, Rose knew he was teasing.

She turned to look at him and smiled.

"You are my Doctor. So is he, but you…you're my reason, your who is always there inmy head. Telling what a 'stupid ape' I'm being when I do something wrong." Rose broke into a grin and the Ninth Doctor was forced to remember how fast, he had made her grow up.

He looked at her suddenly serious.

"Leave him." He said simply making her frown in shook. "If he ever hurts you in anyway promise me you'll leave him." He was nearly begging with her now. Pleading with his eyes.

"Doctor…" Rose took a deep breath.

"Rose you can do this on your own, just don't let me hurt you like that again." He grabbed her hand.

"Ok, I promise." Was this betrayal?

She knew she would never leave him.

She leant towards the Ninth Doctor and kissed him quickly on the lips.

"I've always wanted to do that." She explained smiling, although it was a natural occurrence.

Nine grinned in return.

"Fantastic."

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"What happened to the tape?" Asked Doctor Number Nine. The last stop of all Powell Estate. "It's only after Bad Wolf Bay. I mean Three managed to switch it off just after that. We saw it but it wasn't recording."

"I don't know," said Rose defensively. "Watch it, send it, burn it, put it one YouTube. As long as I don't have to watch it, I don't really care." She walked over to the far side of the control room to examine a jacket she found on the coat hook that looked suspiciously like her own.

"It's been sent." Muttered number Ten to his previous self.

"Why?" asked the other Doctor, clearly shocked.

"Because she kept me fighting, when I was ready to give up."

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The Tenth Doctor would never understand why he hurt Rose the way he did.

He understood how, thanks to the Master, he understood that better than anything. But he didn't understand how he could have done it.

Then again, he didn't understand how he could have let Gallifrey burn.

Yet, he had.

He had thought he knew himself. That he had limits. That if there was one person in whatever world or Universe he was in, he and he alone understood himself. And he knew himself well enough to know that he had limits.

But, now, as he looked himself in the mirror, he became aware that he didn't know himself at all. He didn't know what he'd do in the end, if he was pushed hard enough. After all they've been through, he knew he still, even now, didn't understand Rose.

He needed someone there to stop him.

The Doctor looked in the mirror and a stranger stared back. Without boundaries that could be crossed and horrible deeds that could be done, he didn't know if the man in the mirror would do them.

He thought he would never hurt Rose. Chances are he'd thought that while he was hurting her. When push came to shove, he didn't know what he'd do.

And that sacred him.

The man in the mirror was a stranger the Doctor could never hope to truly know.

Just a stranger.

And so was everyone else, in the end, because we will never really know ourselves.

We are all just strangers we've met.

THE END

_Right it's thirty five past one in the morning and this is it. The End_

_Thank you to all the people who have reviewed hope you liked this chapter and I did the story justice. If anyone would like to talk to me about it please feel free. _

_I started this story in August at the last week of the holidays. In four days time it will be the 14__th__ Feb, valentines day. _

_This story was a labour of love, now matter how much stress it caused. I planned on doing 14 chapters, but came out with 17, had sudden ideas in the middle of the night and spent my Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons thinking of better ways of saying a single sentence._

_There probably won't be a sequel, but maybe another long story and the end of Feb or around March. Maybe including the Torchwood staff with the Doctor and Rose or Master/Rose._

_Until then short stories only._

_Hoped you liked this story and the ending was unexpected._

_Thanks again for the reviews they were sometimes, the highlight of the day. _

_TeggieLady xxx_


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